November 14, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 21, 1427

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PARACHINAR, Nov 13: Riots broke out in Parachinar, the Kurram Agency's headquarters, on Monday when several hundred students protested against the shifting of the venue of a proposed medical college and clashed with the Levy troops.

Angry students burnt offices of the South Fata Development Project, ransacked various portions of the building of Government Degree College and blocked the highway between Parachinar and Thall for some time.

Several people, including the principal of the Degree College, were injured. They were taken to the agency headquarters hospital, while the Levies troops fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.

The unrest was caused after the NWFP Governor, Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, was reported to have said that Parachinar was not a feasible site for the medical college and directed that it be set up in some other area in Fata.

People from the Kurram Agency had staged protest demonstrations in Peshawar and Islamabad against the decision, calling upon the government not to shift the institution, which had been proposed in the mid 1970s.

On Monday, officials said that the Degree College students staged a rally against the shifting of the medical college.

The students were also calling for provision of teachers and initiating evening classes besides demanding an end to submission of an undertaking of non-participation in political activities during admission in the college.

Tribal elders and senior administration officials held talks with the protesters and asked them to end the strike as their demands would be discussed by authorities concerned.

The situation turned ugly when tribal Levies’ force started baton-charging the students and fired tear-gas shells upon the protesters. Students retaliated by torching tyres and throwing stones at the officials, because of which several people and some Levy personnel were injured.

Angry students also set ablaze a vehicle, a motorcycle and the record of the South Fata Development Project.

Local people said that security guards of the development project office fired aerial shots to scatter the protesters.

Officials said that Assistant Political Agent of the Upper Kurram Mohammad Fakhruddin and tribal elders held talks with student leaders in a bid to avert further clashes. No arrest was reported till the filing of this report.

Local administration has called in paramilitary forces to secure government buildings.

According to latest reports, the students had ended their protest after extended talks with the political authorities and tribal elders. A joint committee was formed to look into the students’ demands.