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Friday March 29, 2024

Bacha Khan University to reopen for staff today

By Khalid Kheshgi
January 25, 2016

VC says classes to begin soon; vows not to bow to forces of darkness

PESHAWAR: Vice-Chancellor of Bacha Khan University Dr Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat has said the university will reopen for staff today and classes will begin shortly with the spirit to knock out the forces of evil and darkness. 

Talking to The News, he said a condolence meeting would be held at the main auditorium of the university where teachers, students and other staffers would offer collective prayers for the departed souls and those injured in the terrorist attack on January 20.

He added that reconstruction and repair works had been started at the damaged and bullet-riddled buildings, walls and windows after preliminary inspection and a memorial would be erected in the university campus in memory of those who lost their lives in the gruesome attack. Four terrorists had stormed the campus of the Bacha Khan University Charsadda on Wednesday killing 21 people, mostly students at a boys’ hostel. A teacher, a librarian and other staff members were also among those killed.

Recalling the gory incident, the vice-chancellor said he was on his way to the university when he was told that armed men had entered the campus and launched an attack.  He said he was stopped at the Nissatta Police Station, sited about two kilometres from the campus.

“A literary gathering (mushaira) had been scheduled in connection with the 28th death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the main hall of the university,” he said, adding it was purely a literary function and only poets and scholars were invited to the event. To a question, the vice chancellor said he had already cautioned his security staff in view of the threats of attack on an educational institution of the province. However, he stressed that there was no specific threat to the Bacha Khan University.  

Dr Fazal-ur- Rahim Marwat asked the federal government to announce special gallantry award of Tamgha-e-Shujaat for those who sacrificed their lives at Bacha Khan University. He maintained that the security guards, students, a teacher and the Campus Police had shown bravery while facing the armed terrorists inside the campus.

“There is no pressure from the parents or relatives of those who died in the attack. Rather they are proud of the martyrdom of their near and dear ones,” he said.

The vice-chancellor also appreciated the quick and early response of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police and Pakistan Army who wasted no time and reached the campus to confine the terrorists to a building and then eliminate them on the spot.  

Dr Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat, who is author of the book “From Muhajir to Mujahid” about Afghan refugees and mujahideen, said it was a great dilemma of the nation that the terrorists had targetted educational institutions. “The nation must join the security forces to foil the designs of those who wanted to deprive our children of modern education and knowledge,” he stressed.

“We need to change our syllabus, discourage the culture of guns and end the economy of war being implemented on our soil,” he added.