HYDERABAD/DADU: Teachers boycotted ongoing semester examinations at the Sindh University, Jamshoro, and staged a sit-in on the nearby section of the Indus Highway on Monday in protest against registration of a sedition case against two faculty members.

The FIR lodged by SHO Niaz Panhwar accused associate professors Dr Younis Leghari and Dr Pasand Ali Khoso, who also held administrative positions as director of Students’ Affairs and provost of Boys Hostel, respectively, of instigating students to stage a rally on Dec 4, to mark the Sindhi Culture Day, and inciting them to chant anti-state slogans. Seventy students were also nominated in the FIR.

The university administration also postponed the semester exams after the Sindh University Teachers’ Association (Suta) gave a call for the protest.

Protest suspended for a day after Jamshoro SSP assures them of striking off two professors’ names from FIR registered against 70 students, others

The Suta leadership spearheaded the march to the Indus Highway, where they staged the protest and caused suspension of vehicular traffic on both sides of the highway.

Kotri DSP Irfan Bhatti rushed to the university and assured the protesters of clearing the teachers’ names of sedition charges. The teachers ended the protest but told him that if their colleagues’ names were not removed from the FIR by 11am on Tuesday, they would resume the sit-in outside Jamshoro SSP’s office.

Suta’s Sufi Panel leader and syndicate member Dr Arfana Mallah, president of the association Dr Rafiq Ahmed Lashari, Dr Tania Mushtaq, Dr Shah Murad Chandio and Dr Qasim Nizamani said that the SU vice chancellor must take effective measures to ensure omission of the teachers’ names from the false case.

They vowed in their statement that academic activities would remain suspended at the university till the teachers’ names were struck off the case.

They urged the VC to contact chancellor of the universities or Sindh government to get this case withdrawn and demanded caretaker chief minister ensure protection to all teachers.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Government College University Hyderabad Teachers Association condemned the sedition FIR against the SU faculty members and expressed its support for the affected teachers.

President of the association Tariq Jalbani and general secretary Dr Shahnawaz Mangi said that implication of teachers in the case was unjust, unfounded and deeply troubling.

The meeting urged the authorities concerned to order an impartial inquiry into the incident and emphasised the need for a dialogue to resolve all issues confronting the academic community.

The Jamshoro police registered the FIR (No.336/23) under Sections 123-A, 124, 153, A/B 147, 149 PPC read with Section 6/7 of Anti-Terrorism Act against 70 suspects, among them two teachers and 15 student leaders, for anti-state sloganeering during a rally in the wake of Sindhi Culture Day celebration at Sindh University on Dec 4.

The rally was staged under the aegis of JSSF Alliance. The FIR said that students brought out the rally at the behest of SU officers in which activists of banned organisations also participated.

Speaking to the protesters, Dr Arfana Mallah and other leaders lashed out at the Jamshoro SSP, Hyderabad DIG and Sindh home department for ordering registration of treason case against the two teachers. They urged the Sindh IGP to suspend the SHO and slammed “weak” response from the vice chancellor to the issue.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023