KARACHI, Feb 14: Some more educational institutions in the city have decided to remain closed on Feb 17 to mark protest against publication of blasphemous sketches in European newspapers.

Registrar of the Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Meher F. Hansotia, said on Tuesday that in order to express solidarity with the public sentiments and to express indignation over the repeated publication of blasphemous sketches in the foreign newspaper, all the offices of the varsity and its constituent institutions, ie the Dow and Sindh medical colleges and the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases would remain closed on Feb 17.

However, due to closure, facilities accorded to the patients at Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases and affiliated hospitals of the DMC and SMC will not be affected, the registrar added.

In the meantime, chairman of All Private Schools Management Association, Sindh, Syed Khalid Shah, said that decision by his body to keep closed the associated schools on Feb 17 throughout the province had been welcomed by other groups of private school as well.

The managements of other private schools in the province, including the “big ones” of Karachi, have assured us that they would observe a strike against the blasphemy on Feb 17.

The Catholic Board of Education had already announced that its affiliated schools would remain closed on Friday.

In other developments, the Federation of Private Schools Management Association has announced to bring out a protest rally of students and teachers on Feb 16 at 11am from Nishtar Park, Karachi.