PESHAWAR, May 19: Despite ban on corporal punishment in schools, a sixth grade student of a government school at Civil Quarters here was severely beaten for singing the national anthem incorrectly and then got a bad hit on his eye when a teacher was punishing another student with a stick.

Talking to media persons at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Said Umar, 13, said that his physical education teacher (PET) Habibullah caned him for his inability to recite the anthem correctly.

“The teacher beat me up with stick on different parts of my body. I was not ready to go to the school the following day (Wednesday), but my parents forced me to go,” Mr Umar said while narrating his ordeal.

The student said that he had done nothing wrong, but just could not pronounce the words of the national anthem correctly, on which the PET started beating him with a stick.

“On Wednesday morning, our Arabic teacher Saadullah Jan was beating another student when he (mistakenly) hit me on my left eye and blood started oozing from my eye,” he said.

An uncle of the student told this correspondent that he had complained to the school principal, but so far no action was taken against the two teachers.

“Umar is a position-holder student of his class, but can not properly pronounce the national anthem,” he said while calling for action against the teachers.He said that Umar was getting treatment from an eye specialist with the hope that he would regain his eyesight. He said that Umar was the only son of his parents after four sisters and his mother had fallen ill due to the shock.

When contacted, vice principal of the school, Murad Khan, said that the school administration had taken the matter very seriously and held an emergent meeting in this regard.

He said that beating of students was violation of government rules and they would reply to the education department if it sought a report in this regard.