| Screening test for ReTs: Police thrashes protesting teachers in Srinagar | | 3 dozen injured, over 100 detained; protests to continue | |  Javaid Naikoo
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Aug 5: Around three dozen teachers were injured after police used force on Wednesday to disperse hundreds of teachers protesting against the government decision to conduct screening test for teachers and verify their certificates before regularizing them. The teachers assembled outside Directorate of Education office and started marching towards the Civil Secretariat to lodge their protest against the government's plan, said eyewitnesses.
Police swung into action and asked the teachers to disperse. However, the teachers refused to budge and continued their march.
After brief argument, the cops used batons and water cannons to quell the protests, said eyewitnesses, adding that police also fired teargas canisters towards the protestors.
Some teachers identified as Daljeet Singh of Tral, Zahoor Ahmad of Pulwama, Jahangir Ali of Budgam, Zafar Iqbal of Mendhar, Poonch, Firdous Ahmad of Baramulla, Mudasir Ahmad of Kulgam, Ajaz Ahmad, and Muhammad Ashraf Malik were seriously injured while 23 others received minor injuries in the police action.
Over a hundred teachers, including their leader Abdul Qayoom Wani, were also detained by the police and shifted to nearby police station. Chairman of the ReT Teachers Forum Farooq Ahmad Tantray while condemning the police action told Early Times: "Daljeet Singh who was admitted in SMHS Hospital after one cop hit on his eye and damaged his eye completely has been advised by the doctors to either shift to AIIMS Delhi or to Chandigarh for immediate treatment of his damaged left eye." "Seven more teachers were seriously injured as they were badly beaten by cops," Tantray said.
Meanwhile, leaders of different teachers associations said that they would continue with their agitation till the government does not take its decision back.
The teachers had called for a two-day strike as a mark of protest against the government decision to make screening test compulsory for ReT teachers and verify their degree certificates which they have obtained from universities outside the state through distance mode. The government says it's only implementing the order of the High Court issued on May 14 after one ReT applicant failed to write an essay on cow in the court premises. |
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