KARACHI, Nov 15: Most of the schools in the troubled areas of Lyari Town have been closed since Tuesday with the commencement of the three-day protest in Sindh announced by the Pakistan People’s Party against the detention of its chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto in Lahore.

The protest turned violent following a crackdown on PPP workers and clashes between police and protesters at some places in Lyari. The law and order situation prompted closure of hundreds of government and private schools in the town and forced thousands of students and teachers to stay indoors.

“We have closed all branches of our school in Lyari Town to ensure safety of our students,” principal of a private school in Baghdadi area told Dawn.

She said the situation had badly affected the students’ educational activities, besides routine life, pointing out that crossfire involving criminal gangs, coupled with political violence, in the town had made it highly risky for teaching and non-teaching staff in many educational institutions to attend their workplaces.

“It is quite difficult for teachers, most of them women, to come to schools and go back home amid the continuing violence,” she said.

Many parents said they had stopped sending their children schools because of the uncertain situation and indiscriminate firing in the area.

“I have stopped my children from going to their school situated nearby (in Daryabad area) because the situation is turning very dangerous,” Gulnar Shakoor, a mother of two teenaged students, said.

The situation is so serious that even policemen residing in the Police Quarters near the Lyari Telephone Exchange do not dare sending their children to their educational institutions. “I am a head-constable but I am a father, too,” argued a policeman.

Similar was the situation at the scores of public sector schools where a very thin attendance was recorded on Wednesday and Thursday.

“We cannot declare our schools closed on our own as the government schools can be closed only on an order issued by the competent authority,” headmaster of a government primary school in Nawabad area said.

A senior official of the City District Government Karachi said no decision had been taken yet on the closure of schools in Lyari.