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Schools association planning protest for principal’s release

Karachi The private schools’ association in Landhi is planning to organise a series of protests against the arrest a polio-affected school principal over his suspected links to Taliban militants and has also approached the apex court and police high-ups to probe into the case. On November 10, the police’s counter-terrorism

By Zia Ur Rehman
November 24, 2015
Karachi
The private schools’ association in Landhi is planning to organise a series of protests against the arrest a polio-affected school principal over his suspected links to Taliban militants and has also approached the apex court and police high-ups to probe into the case.
On November 10, the police’s counter-terrorism department-II Saudabad team picked up Nawab Saifi, the principal of a private school in Muslimabad neighbourhood in Quaidabad.
Later on November 13, CTD SSP Junaid Shaikh said Saifi was arrested for his links to Shireen Jan, a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan commander in Waziristan, and his involvement in masterminding subversive activities including the killing of policemen and kidnappings for ransom.
“Saifi was now preparing a hit-list of policemen including serving SHOs,” Shaikh said at a press conference at his office. The official also said Saifi was found in possession of weapons and ammunition.
However, the private schools’ association, rejecting police claims, said CTD officials, at the behest of the area’s police, had implicated Saifi in a fake case.
For Saifi’s release, the administrators over 20 schools of Landhi gathered on Thursday and formed a committee to meet with police high-ups and government officials and take the case to the court.
On Friday, the committee members met with senior CTD officer Amir Farooqui and informed him about their reservations.
A school administrator, who attended the meeting, said Farooqui had assured the committee that police were probing into the case.
The school administrators have also announced that they would stage a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday (today) for Saifi’s release.
In Muslimabad, residents said Saifi was running his school, the SF Secondary School, where over 800 students are enrolled, for the last 20 years.
“To show that a polio-affected school principal is a Taliban militant is hilarious,” said Muhammad Ibrahim, the father of a student at the school.
Shaikh said Saifi was involved in the killing of many policemen of the Quaidabad police station, but even relatives of slain officers have rejected the CTD’s claims.
Iqbal Jamil, the brother of ASI Jamil, who was killed on August 12 last year near Gul Ahmed Chowrangi, said Saifi had helped in taking his injured brother to a hospital. “The CTD’s claims that Saifi is involved in his brother’s murder is baseless and I am going to record my statement with the CTD,” he told The News.
Saifi ran a protest campaign against the Quaidabad police station personnel for not arresting the culprits of murder of his brother, Muhammad Omar, 18, whose body was found in November 2009 in a garbage dump in Majeed Colony.
“All policemen, against whom Saifi ran campaign in 2009, were written of the list the CTD presented on Saifi’s school letterhead,” he said.
“At the behest of the certain police personnel, the CTD arrested Saifi in a fake case,” he said.
CTD official Farooqui told The News that he had met with the teachers' delegation and heard their grievances.
“To make the investigation more transparent, I have recommended transferring the probe to an SSP-level officer,” he added.