Police dawdle in filing Balochistan student’s suicide case
The case regarding the suicide of Muslim Bagh College’s female student has not been registered even three days after the news broke.
Police and administration are not taking notice of the issue as no FIR has been registered against those responsible for suicide of the girl college’s student.
Saqiba Kakar, a 17-year-old student of the Government Girls Degree College Muslim Bagh, committed suicide on the last date for the submission of forms to Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education allegedly because the college’s principal refused to send her form to the board.
The girl’s family have filed an application at the Muslim Bagh Police Station, requesting its station house officer to register an FIR against the college’s principal and one of its clerks. But the FIR had not been registered on Tuesday, a police officer said.
“We are waiting for the report of an inquiry into the incident,” he told a local newspaper.
He said a police team had started investigations into the incident and begun collecting evidence.
The district police officer said the medical report of the young student was still awaited.
The student had died in Quetta as her brother had taken her to a hospital in Muslim Bagh but she had been referred to a Quetta hospital for further treatment, he said.
Police had recorded the statements of Abida Ghous, the principal, and other staff of the college, he said. The girl’s family had mentioned the principal and a clerk of the college as the accused in their application.
Meanwhile, a three-member committee headed by a joint director of colleges, Rabab Hameed Khan Durrani, has also started investigations into the suicide case.
The inquiry team visited the college on Tuesday and recorded the statements of its principal and other staff members. The team also took the relevant record into custody.
However, the family of the deceased have refused to cooperate with the members of the team. They have instead called for a judicial inquiry into the incident.
“We don’t have confidence in the inquiry committee. We do not expect justice from the government committee,” Aizazullah, the late Saqiba Kakar’s brother, said.
He said that principal and clerk of the college belonged to a political party to which the minister who had appointed the committee also belonged.
But Provincial Education Minister Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal said that whoever was found guilty in the case would be brought to justice. “The principal should not have adopted such an attitude towards young students, and on a such a paltry issue,” he said, adding that he had visited the girl’s family and assured them of cooperation in the case.
Ziaratwal said while talking to a private TV channel that the deceased girl was a brilliant student.
Principal, Abida Ghous was supposed to allow admission to the student without making it about her ego, he added.
He said that Saqiba’s father was called and asked to offer apologies to tribal leaders which he did. However, despite his apologies to Haji Siddique and Senator Usman Kakar, the principal did not change her stance about late Saqiba’s admission.
The principal’s brother-in-law is reported to be the clerk in the college office. He also holds a position in Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) local chapter.
Hakim Kakar, the father of the late girl, said her only sin was that she had organised a protest in Quetta against the shortage of teachers in her college. “I myself went to the principal and requested her to pardon my daughter, but she did not listen,” he said.
Abida Ghous, the college principal who has been suspended by the chief minister, denied the allegations and said she had nothing to do with the suicide.
“Domestic issues cannot be ruled out as the cause of the suicide,” she said and added that the education department was fully aware of the episode.
She said a case had also been registered against the brother of the deceased who had hurled threats at her. She said that some girls had been expelled from the college in August because they were creating problems there.
Later on, eight of the students had been granted re-admission. Saqiba and two other girls had never contacted her for readmission to the college, she added.