Pakistan: Riot police use batons, lob tear gas shells to disperse protesting teachers

The incident left a dozen teachers reportedly hurt.

Around 68 teachers, including some pensioners, had been taken into custody for “rioting in a sensitive area,” Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Kiyani told Dawn.

Speaking at a press conference in the wake of the incident, representatives of All Azad Kashmir Schoolteachers Organisation threatened against launching a “state-wide agitation” if their demand was not met and their detained colleagues were not released by the government within 24 hours, reports Dawn News.

Around 2000 teachers had reportedly participated in the protest on Wednesday.

They recalled that they had long been calling for implementation of a “commitment” made to them in 2013 by the then Chaudhry Abdul Majeed led PPP government, whereby the post of primary teacher was to be upgraded to BS-14 from BS-7, that of the junior teacher to BS-16 from BS-14 and the senior teacher to BS-17 from BS-16, reports Dawn News.

“However, the commitment could not be actualised due to traditional step-motherly attitude of the finance department which keeps on repeating its convenient stance of lack of funds when it comes to giving any genuine benefit to low grade employees,” Ayesha Siddique, one of the representatives in her speech on the occasion, told Dawn News.