KARACHI, July 3: Police on Tuesday resorted to a baton charge and used water cannons to stop dozens of protesters from entering the ‘red zone’ — a police term used to define highly sensitive and guarded areas such as Governor’s House, CM House, Sindh Assembly and consulates.

The protesters, who had appeared in a test but failed to attain the minimum marks required for the post of primary school teachers, were marching towards the red zone in protest against the Sindh education department for not issuing employment letters to them, said officials.

“The police party moved when the protesters refused to follow the set security rules,” said ASP Civil Lines Usman Ijaz. “We were compelled to use force only when we failed to convince them through talks. No injury was reported to any side during the brief episode.”

The police said they picked up more than a dozen candidates, but released them within a few hours.

The candidates claimed to have cleared the tests designed by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) for the position of primary school teachers.

They alleged that the Sindh education ministry had denied their merit by not issuing them employment letters.

However, a senior official of the education department told Dawn that the protesting candidates had acquired “below 60 per cent marks in the test, which doesn’t hold them eligible for the primary teacher job under the defined rules”.