Hundreds of angry students attacked the main building of Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) and set it on fire here on Wednesday. They students were said to be agitated over excessive delay in the announcement of their intermediate examination results.
Reports reaching here said around 1,500 students from various colleges of the garrison city, armed with iron rods, sticks and bottles filled with fuel, ransacked the board’s main building and set it on fire. Resultantly official record, a library with around 3,000 books and furniture worth million of rupees were reduced to aches.
The protesting students later said the Punjab government and Rawalpindi BISE were playing with their future by delaying their results.
“We have been awaiting our results for the last three months…but so far there is no news from the board. That was why we had to take some extreme measures,” said Arshad Ali, an angry student.
The protesting students also partially damaged others BISE buildings including Matriculation Branch and exam controller’s office, which were situated near the main building. However, no major property losses were reported there. It was also reported that some students took away some official files from controller’s office. They also damaged signboards present on two roads opposite the board’s building.
Ironically, during all the rioting, heavy contingents of police were present outside the board’s building but they didn’t take any action against the young vandals, hence giving a free hand to rioters.
The policemen, however, later resorted to firing teargas shells and aerial firing to disperse the angry students. The protesters also blocked the Murree Road and Saidpur Road with burning tyres. They were chanting slogans against the Punjab government and the board administration.
The protesters also damaged a number of passing-by vehicles by pelting stones. Due to students’ massive protest, all the fuel stations in the neighbourhoods were closed. That, however, caused problems for the general public. Three vehicles of the fire brigade department reached the scene to extinguish the blaze but the enraged students also broke windowpanes of one of the vehicles.
The two-story building of the board was completely gutted and the fire brigade officials took hours to extinguish the fire completely.
It may be recalled here that students had been protesting for the last several months for their ‘accurate’ results. In November, Rawalpindi BISE and others boards of the province announced ‘faulty’ results of Intermediate part-I exam, which were later on cancelled by the Punjab government, amid growing protests by the students. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif then directed all the board high-ups to announce the revised results within 45 days.
Later on, other boards declared the new results but Rawalpindi BISE lagged behind despite passage of 40 days. That, according to students, was the cause of their violent protest of Thursday.
“We were busy in our work when hundreds of angry students entered the building… they asked us to vacate the building immediacy and then systematically set the building on fire,” said Shafqat Mahmood, a board official.
He said when the students entered the building; the board’s acting chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf and secretary Rana Atta were present in their offices.
“But instead to holding talks with the students they ran away, which enraged the students further and their attacked turned to arson,” another official told this scribe, requesting anonymity.
Yet another BISE official told Pakistan Today that on Thursday morning, a group of students had visited the BISE official and met the board’s secretary. He said they had come to get information about their results. But, he said, the secretary didn’t give them any deadline and it enraged the students.
A spokesperson for the board, Arslan Cheema, claimed that all the ‘important’ record was salvaged before the fire erupted. He said the board would announce the results on 24 December.
To a query, he said the board administration had been anticipating such vandalism and they had also informed the district administration on Thursday morning.
“The district administration deployed heavy contingents of police outside the building. But astonishingly enough, the policemen didn’t take any action against the protesters in time,” he observed.
Speaking on the occasion, Raja Nasrulla, an office-bearer of the Punjab Teacher Union, alleged that some board officials, on the behest of the board chairman, were actually responsible for the arson. He said that in order to cover their failure in preparing the exam results, they had been provoking the students to do what they finally did on Thursday.
When corruption becomes the aim and goal of each and every responsible person of each major department of an Islamic country like Pakistan whose PRESIDENT and his followers are the famous corrupt persons in the whole world. Then this kind of many incidents take place. Infect each and every person is playing with the future of their children and this country. Students are not satisfied with corrupt system, including Govt. departments, Universities, ICAP, Media and many other ruling and governing department. Because youth wants to do some better for this beloved country. But our bad system makes hurdles against their innocent true working. Each department is working for political agents of govt. and our Government is playing in the hands of America. Nobody is working fairly for their original future that is the DAY OF JUDGMENT every one forget he is the (KHALIFA OF ALLAH) he has to follow the rules of Allah and His Holly Book QURAN and SUNA of Holy PROFIT Hazarat Muhammad (P.B.U.H). May Allah Bless This County.
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