QUETTA: Police have arrested a second year student of Cadet College Mastung who was nominated in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged at the City Police Station in Mastung for his alleged involvement in the corporal punishment incident which took place at the college on Monday.

The principal of the college, Javed Iqbal Bangash, is already in police custody as he had allegedly ordered the punishment to be carried out on the students of the ninth and tenth grade after one of the students slapped his son, a student of the seventh grade, at the same college.

Acting DIG Quetta and Chief of CTD Aitzaz Goraya submitted a copy of the FIR to the high court in which the principal and six students were nominated.

The college principal had been taken into custody on an order of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) division bench and was sent on judicial remand.On Monday, a video of the corporal punishment went viral on social media in which many senior students could be seen torturing students of class 9 and 10 in the college’s garden.

The president of the BHC bar association Shah Muhammad Jatoi filed a petition against the incident and requested the BHC to intervene. He also asked for an inquiry into what happened.

On Tuesday, Mr Goraya told the court that by using the video and statements of the students who had been punished, they were able to identify the culprits.He told the court that one student identified as Inyatullah was involved in torturing the students and was under arrest while the search for other students was under way.

The court ordered the secretary colleges and regional police officer to visit the college and help the students deal with depression and their fear of rejoining the education cycle.

BHC Chief Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai also announced that he would visit the college next week.

He added that the principal should not be sentenced before the investigation was completed as it would have a negative impact on the teachers.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2018