Female teacher beaten inside Karachi school; cop among suspects

Police officers stand behind crime scene tape. — AFP/File

• Incident caused by teacher disciplining student.
• Female colleagues also assaulted during altercation.
• SSP East takes notice; internal probe underway.
  

KARACHI: A female teacher was assaulted by a student's family, including a police official, at a private school in the Jamshed Quarters area of Karachi, police said on Wednesday.

An FIR was registered at Jamshed Quarters Police Station on the complaint of the affected teacher, while CCTV footage of the incident has also surfaced showing the suspects assaulting her inside the school.

According to the complainant, the altercation was triggered on May 16 when a student was reprimanded for arriving late to school and made to stand briefly as punishment. 

Two days later, the student’s parents and maternal uncle visited the school to confront the teacher.

The FIR states that during the confrontation, the student’s uncle introduced himself as the SHO of Kalakot and allegedly assaulted the teacher inside the principal’s office, along with the student and her parents. 

Other female teachers who came to her aid were also manhandled, the FIR adds.

Police said that one of the individuals involved in the assault is a serving police official and that departmental action has been initiated against him. SSP East Dr Farrukh Raza has taken notice of the incident and an investigation is underway.

Video footage of the attack reportedly shows the suspects physically assaulting the teacher inside the school premises.

This incident follows a separate case earlier this year in which Khan Mayel, a 38-year-old schoolteacher from North Waziristan, was shot dead outside a school in North Karachi on January 24.

According to police, two unidentified assailants waited for the victim outside a school in the Rasheedabad area and opened fire as he arrived. 

The attackers, one of whom had his face covered with a shawl, fled on a motorcycle. Mayel was struck in the head by a 9mm bullet and died at the scene. Police suspect personal enmity as the motive.