LARKANA, Feb 27: At least nine persons were injured on Thursday in a scuffle between workers of the Jeay Sindh Students Federation and the staff of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Larkana.

Fighting began after a group of JSSF workers, led by Athar Soomro, demonstrated outside the office of the BISE’s controller of examinations against the alleged rise in examination fee.

They were stopped when they tried to reach the BISE’s secret branch, said Ali Nawaz Palijo, chairman of the Board, while talking to this correspondent.

The protesting JSSF workers later set ablaze some admission slips and office files, he said.

He accused the JSSF workers the students of carrying sticks and petrol with them.

Sikandar Mirjat, general secretary of the BISE’s employees association, while confirming the statement of the BISE chairman, said that the JSSF workers had burnt around 100 entry slips of the matric examinations, which are set to begin from next Saturday.

The injured included Sikandar Mirjat, Ibrahim Massan, Sabir Shah, Sikandar Mallano, Ghulam Mustafa Brohi, Mansoor Mangnijo (a security guard) and Mohammed Ali Kalhoro.

However, the JSSF workers denied having torched the admission slips and accused the BISE employees of having injured two of their colleagues, Athar Soomro and Azizur Rehman Shaikh.

Most of the injured were released from the hospital after providing them with first aid but Azizur Rehman Shaikh of the JSSF and Sabir Shah, a BISE employee, are said to have received some serious injuries.

The ASP, City, Mohammed Alam Shinwari, along with a contingent of the Waleed police station, arrived at the scene of the incident and inspected the site along with the BISE’s chairman, secretary and controller of examinations.

The secretary of the BISE, Larkana, Abdul Rehman Chandio, later registered an FIR with the Waleed police station against Athar Soomro, Azizur Rehman Shaikh, Riaz Langah and 40 unidentified persons and accused them of attacking the board office, having torched admission slips, damaging furniture and injuring employees.