Four students hurt as protesters damage property, smash windows
Hundreds of students protesting against a French magazine for publishing blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) stormed a Christian boys’ school demanding its closure, officials and police said Tuesday.
Four students were slightly hurt in the incident in Bannu on Monday, which happened as students from local colleges and schools demonstrated against the cartoons printed in French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
“A group of some 200 to 300 protesting students entered Panel High School after jumping its outer walls and forcibly opened the gates,” school principal Fredrick Farhan Das said.
He said the students who wanted the school to be shut damaged the property and smashed windows.
“This caused kind of a stampede, which slightly injured four students,” Das said.
He said the school remained closed on Tuesday in protest against the incident and will re-open on Wednesday.
District police officer Abdul Rashid Khan confirmed the incident but said it was not thought to be an anti-Christian attack.
Two gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo earlier this month, killing 12 people.
The magazine then published a “survivors” issue with another cover, triggering a wave of angry condemnation and protest in Muslim-majority countries across the world.
At least three people were injured on January 16 when protesters and police clashed at an anti-Charlie Hebdo demonstration outside the French consulate in Karachi.
