Islamabad: Sixty masked men wielding iron
rods barged into a girls` school in the garrison city of
Rawalpindi and thrashed students and female teachers for being
dressed inappropriately, according to a media report on Sunday.
The gang warned teachers and students at MC Model Girls
High School in Satellite Town during the attack on Friday to
"dress modestly and wear hijabs" or face the consequences,
witnesses said.
The attack created panic in the area and only 25 of the
school`s 400 students attended classes yesterday, The Express
Tribune newspaper reported. The school has 30 female teachers.
Attendance in other educational institutions in the area
too remained low, the report said.
After hearing about the attack, all schools in Rawalpindi
shut down, an unnamed official of the district administration
told the daily.
A student of MC Model Girls High School informed the
administration of a nearby boys` high school about the attack.
"The armed gang was so powerful that we could not rescue
our teachers and colleagues over there," Noail Javed, a grade
10 student of the boys, school said.
The official in-charge of all MC High Schools in
Rawalpindi issued a notification to the heads of girls`
schools to take pre-emptive measures to avert such incidents
in future.
According to the notification, a gang comprising 60 to 70
men entered the school from a gate that was "strangely open".
The notification said the heads of MC High School were
responsible for protecting students.
A school headmistress, who did not wanted to be named,
said: "How is it possible for us to protect the students from
such elements? The city administration should review its
security plan."
The notification suggested that the heads of schools
should not inform students about the situation so that they
would not be alarmed into skipping school.
"Police is investigating the matter," the notification
said.
Following the notification, the heads of schools shared
the telephone numbers of police stations with teachers so that
any untoward situation could be reported.
Asjad Ali, a student of class 9 at the boys` high school,
said his younger brother Awais, a student of grade 5, was
among those who were brutally beaten by the men with iron
rods.
"The police did not come," he said.
An unnamed official of New Town police station told the
daily: "We were under strict instructions to do nothing."
PTI
