University of Peshawar employees go on strike

PESHAWAR: Tension heightened at the University of Peshawar campus after the killing of a security advisor within the fortnight of the murder of a lecturer at the hands of a guard as a joint action committee of all the teaching and non-teaching employees of the university announced to go on strike from today until acceptance of their demands.

No academic, official and even sanitation activities on the campus would be held until acceptance of the demands, the joint action committee decided in a meeting on Monday. Also, they would observe a sit-in on campus. The Joint Action Committee comprising Peshawar University Teachers Association, Class-III, Class-IV, and Sanitation Staff Associations of the University of Peshawar demanded the immediate removal of the vice-chancellor for his alleged failure to protect the lives of the university officials.

They demanded the formation of a judicial inquiry into the killing of Saqlain Bangash, the security advisor who was killed at the university on Sunday. They stressed clearing the university of all kinds of arms, besides undertaking physiological tests of all the security staff.

The employees demanded an early and complete end to the policies of adhocism in the university. The meeting decided that all the employees of the university and adjacent educational institutions would gather at PUTA Chowk by 8.30 today and stage a sit-in there.

Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) held a separate meeting with its provincial president Dr Izhar Ahmad in the chair to discuss the situation after the killing of Prof Bashir Ahmad and Saqlain Bangash both at the hands of security guards on two Sundays.

The meeting endorsed all the decisions of the Joint Action Committee of the University of Peshawar and announced full support for them. Meanwhile, the students of the university under the aegis of different organizations staged a protest demonstration against the two tragic incidents on the university campus within two weeks.

The demonstration was led by a leader of Islami Jamiat Talaba Taqveemul Haq. The students launched a protest march from PUTA Hall which continued till Khyber Medical College where it converted into a public gathering.