April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

KARACHI, April 2: “The Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS) demands an independent judicial inquiry into the incident of a KU teacher being beaten up. This was decided by KUTS following a misleading statement issued by the Rangers’ PRO,” KUTS General-Secretary Dr Abid Hasnain said while announcing the unanimous decision taken in the executive council meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was called to discuss the future course of action regarding the incident that took place on March 31 in which a university professor, Dr Riaz Ahmed, was thrashed by Rangers’ officers. The executive council members condemned the statement issued by the Rangers’ spokesman and said it was “misleading and false.”

“The Rangers’ spokesman denied and contorted the incident altogether. The incident was witnessed by numerous students and employees of KU,” said Dr Hasnain.

He said the meeting discussed the “contradictory behaviour” the Rangers had adopted. “A day earlier, one of the Rangers’ officers stated in an interview that the Rangers’ personnel involved had been suspended, arrested and put into the KU Jail,” he said. “Some senior Rangers’ officers that visited the crime scene on the day and saw that Dr Ahmed had been wounded badly had apologized in front of many teachers, students and employees present there,” he added.

The meeting decided that there was a need to hold an independent inquiry into the matter following such “contradictory statements” being issued by the Rangers.

In the meanwhile, the KU vice-chancellor has appointed Dr Khalid Iraqi as the new campus adviser. Prof Iraqi will now be responsible for the security affairs on campus. According to sources, this action has been taken in response to the incidents of students’ clashes and the beating up of a teacher by a Rangers’ official.