PESHAWAR: Police on Thursday claimed to have seized 720 kilograms of textbooks meant for the students of government schools from a dealer in the limits of Phandu police station.

An official told Dawn that police arrested scrap dealer Qadeer and recovered huge quantity of books meant for government school students. He said that the books were not for sale rather for free provision to the students.

The official said that the arrested scarp dealer told police that the books were brought to him by the headmaster of a government school, situated in Civil Quarters neighbourhood of Peshawar and sold those to him at about Rs 10,000.

He said that police were investigating the matter and the scrap dealer told police that he would recognise the schoolteacher, who sold the books to him.

The sold textbooks amounted to 6,000 to 7,000 and were meant for the students of grad I to grade V.

Another police official said that textbooks were meant for academic year 2014-15.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani told Dawn that government would hold an inquiry into the matter to ascertain facts.

He said that first they would look as to where from such a huge quantity of books came and whether the books were new or old.

He said that government would conduct an inquiry through police and would bring those responsible for selling books to the task.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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