Karachi police on Monday fired water cannon and resorted to
baton-charge and tear-gas to prevent protesting teachers from moving
towards the Chief Minister’s House to lodge their protest, according to
eyewitnesses, teachers and officials.
The teachers were
protesting for the fulfillment of a host of their demands, some of which
were already agreed to by the provincial authorities.
Scores of people were also detained during the police action.
Police detain a protester in Karachi.
As several hundred teachers arrived at the scheduled
time at Karachi Press Club and tried to proceed onwards, contingents of
police already deployed at all surrounding roads, where temporary
barriers were also set up, baton-charged them, fired tear gas shells and
used water cannon, causing injuries to some protesting teachers,
including a woman.
Concerned authorities had earlier
invited the teachers for talks at commissioner’s office where both
parties failed to agree on a resolution of the issues.
Saddar Superintendent Police (SP) Tauqeer Mohammed Naeem told Dawn
that the teachers "compelled" the police to take action as they were
protesting in the Red Zone where such rallies have been banned by the
provincial government.
The SP said the police mainly
relied on the use of water cannon to disperse the teachers. However,
when they allegedly attacked policemen with stones and tried to damage
their mobile vans, police were forced to resort to baton-charge and fire
tear gas, he claimed.
“Around 20 to 25 teachers were detained,” said SP Naeem.
However, central leader of All Sindh Primary Teachers Association, Javed Ahmed, told Dawn
that he along with 70 to 80 teachers have been detained at Artillery
Maidan police station alone, while several other teachers have been
detained at other police stations.
Ahmed said that they
have started their march for fulfillment of their 16-point demands, some
of which have already been agreed to by the provincial authorities but
are not being implemented. The march started from the mausoleum of Shah
Abdul Latif Bhitai in Bhit Shah on December 10, and after passing
through various cities arrived at the KPC on Monday.
The
teacher body’s leader said that two officials from District South
administration approached them for talks, to which they agreed.
Ahmed
said he along with four other office-bearers held talks with
commissioner Karachi while special secretary education was also present
there.
“We left the commissioner’s office when we were
told they (the senior officials) were not present to fulfill teachers’
demands,” said Ahmed.
He said when they were about to
reach the KPC, the policemen already deployed there arrested them. And
as other teachers tried to move after failure of talks, they were
subjected to "executive high-handedness".
He claimed a
female teacher, Farzana, became unconscious due to tear gas shelling
while one teacher’s nose was hurt when they were baton-charged.
Regarding
future line of action, the teacher said they have decided to hold a
"hunger strike till death" at the KPC until their demands are fulfilled.
Some
of the demands pertain to promotion of teachers to grade-16 scale,
regularisation of services of contract teachers and of teachers who have
passed NTS tests.
He claimed that in 2014, the Sindh
government had agreed to grant them grade-16 scale but it has not been
implemented so far due to unknown reasons.
