PARACHINAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Sept 12: Three of the scores of students protesting the closure of Thall-Parachinar Road were wounded in Parachinar after levies fired gunshots at them on Monday.

The students enrolled in the country's educational institutions have been stuck in the area for many days.

They had come home to spend summer vacations.

These students had set up a camp in front of the political agent office three days ago to press the administration for early opening of the road or provision of helicopter service to help them reach their respective destinations. Personnel of levies on Monday turned up in large numbers at the camp to disperse the students. They fired gunshots in the air prompting students to march towards the main office.

The levies fired tear gas shells and bullets at protesters to block their movement.

The bullets hit three students wounding them, while five fainted due to tear gas shelling.

The angry mob later attacked the nearby main post office and set a portion of it on fire. It however, dispersed later. The bullets fired in the air by levies damaged high transmission line. However, no damage to human life was reported in it.

Students told Dawn that militants had taken over the Thall-Parachinar Road and the administration and security forces had failed to secure the control of the road to their misery.

They said students of cadet colleges were also stuck in the area but were taken away in military helicopters, while no help was offered to them.

Meanwhile in Dera Ismail Khan, hundreds of students belonging to the Mahsud and Barki tribes held a protest demonstration and blocked the road outside the political katchery on Tank road here on Monday to demand early start of the cadet college in their area in the South Waziristan Agency.

The protesting students, led by Zahir Khan Mahsud, Gul Nawaz and others said that the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, during his visit to South Waziristan had announced establishment of a cadet college in Wana and another one in the area inhabited by the Mahsud tribe, but the projects were delayed.

They demanded of the administration to take steps to set up the college and save future of the students, who were deprived of education facilities due to the spread of militancy in the area.