LAHORE: Families of two arrested teachers of the Punjab University (PU) have demanded law-enforcement agencies complete their investigation at the earliest and either free the teachers or give them the right to defend their case.

Addressing a news conference here on Monday, family members of assistant professors Ghalib Ata and Dr Aamir Saeed of the PU Institute of Administrative Sciences along with PU Academic Staff Association (PUASA) office-bearers said despite a lapse of two weeks, investigation into detention of the two teachers had not been made public.

An intelligence agency along with the Punjab Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department had taken Prof Ata and Dr Saeed into custody for their alleged links with the banned Hizbut Tahrir.

PUASA President Prof Dr Hasan Mobeen Alam said the varsity teachers were patriotic and they fully supported the armed forces’ war against terrorism. However, raiding houses of teachers and arresting them without taking the administration into confidence was condemnable and could not be tolerated. He said if any law-enforcement agency had any doubt about any teacher it could call the individual in a respectable manner. Dr Saeed’s father-in-law, retired Prof Saeed Iqbal, who had served at Islamia College as vice principal, said: “We are with the armed forces. The family feels hurt because of forcibly taking Aamir along since he was already cooperating with an intelligence agency.”

Institute of Administrative Sciences Assistant Professor Dr Mobeen Khalid said he never witnessed any brainwashing of students by his colleagues.

“Both teachers were committed towards their teaching responsibilities,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015