BATKHELA: Around 120 students of Government Zeshan Shaheed Higher Secondary School No-1, Dargai, were hospitalised on Monday after they fainted during the morning assembly and afterwards due to sizzling heat.

It was reported that the morning assembly took longer than usual as Malakand District Education Officer Syed Manzar Jan had reached the school to deliver a lecture on polio immunisation campaign.

The fainted students were rushed to the Dargai tehsil hospital where some were discharged after first aid while others were admitted.

Initially, three students fell on the ground when DEO was addressing morning assembly, according to students, saying the fainting of pupils continued even after they went to their classrooms.

Realizing the seriousness of the issue, the school administration asked all the students at 11pm to go to their homes, they said, adding several students fell unconscious on their way home and many after reaching homes.

The news of the incident spread rapidly and ambulances of Dargai hospital, Al Khidmat Foundation and Batkhela hospital rushed to the site to shift the students. Some students were provided medical treatment in the nearby private clinics.

Talking to media persons, in-charge of the Dargai hospital Dr Sirajuddin said it seemed that students became unconscious due to heat, suffocation and stress. He didn’t agree with a suggestion that poison was thrown in the school’s water tank.

The blood samples of the affected students and water samples were taken for chemical examination to confirm cause of the students falling unconscious.

Opposition leader in district council, Mohammad Raziq Advocate and coordinator of Child Rights Committee, Naseemullah Advocate, said that the school administration asked the students to go to their classrooms instead of shifting them to hospital after the pupils started falling to the ground.

They demanded of the elementary and secondary education department to probe the matter and award punishment to the elements responsible for the incident.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2016