KARACHI: The police resorted to baton charge to beat back dozens of government schoolteachers from Ghotki district marching on the Sindh Assembly building in protest against non-payment of salaries on Thursday. A number of them were arrested only to be released after a few hours’ detention.

Dozens of government schoolteachers from Ghotki district, including women, appointed in June 2012 by the then-PPP government, were part of the protest against non-payment of salaries for the last two years. They said the government first delayed issuance of their appointment letters and then for the last two years they had not been paid salary or any other benefit.

The police did not share the number of people arrested or injured due to use of force; however, the protesters and officer bearers of the Teachers Action Committee claimed that the number of injured educators was over a dozen.

The face-off between the police and schoolteachers began seconds after the protesters attempted to move to Sindh Assembly but were stopped by the police near Arts Council traffic intersection. This led to a scuffle between the two sides.

“The police party moved when the protesters did not follow the set rules of security arrangements,” said an official at the south zone of the police organisational structure. “We were compelled to use force only when we failed to convince them through talks. There was no major injury reported to any side during the episode. The people have only been detained and no case has been registered yet.”

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2017