SHANGLA: The residents of Chagam area of Puran tehsil on Monday alleged that the head teacher of local government middle school beat up several students, breaking hands of some of them.

Speaking at a news conference at Alpuri Press Club on Monday, the people, including parents of the injured students, said the teacher Sherin Zada tortured the children on a daily basis. Over 20 students of the school, who were allegedly beaten by the teacher, were also present at the presser.

The elders said the victim children had stopped going to school.

Children Sardar Ali, Taufiq Ahmed and Niaz Ali told Dawn that the teacher beat them up on minor mistakes.

Sardar Ali, a seven grader, said he reached two minutes late to the morning assembly, on which the head teacher beat him up with a stick, breaking his hand. He said his parents shifted him to hospital for treatment.

Sixth grader Taufiq Ahmed said the teacher broke his thumb on a minor mistake in the classroom. He demanded action against the teacher and his transfer from the school.

Haji Saad Ullah, an elder, said the teacher always abused students.

Another elder, Mukamal Khan, alleged that the teacher was close to district education officer, adding earlier a jirga met the education official to take action against him, but to no avail. “We, as members of the school’s parent-teacher council appeal to authorities concerned to take legal action against the teacher.”

The strength in the school is decreasing because students are leaving it owing to fear of beatings, Mohammad Asif, a member of PTC, said. The local residents said if the teacher was not transferred from the school, then they would take to the streets.

POWER UNITS REPAIRED: All the three units of the Khan Khwar power project have been repaired and started generation of 74MW of electricity, Pesco sources in Bisham claimed.

They said a fault occurred in the project tunnel during last year’s floods, rendering all the three units, two 35 each and one four megawatt capacity, out of function. They said the units were repaired due to the efforts of chief engineer and other officials.

The sources said six months ago, a committee was formed headed by chief engineer Haji Mohammad, which successfully completed repair of the defected units on Sunday evening.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016