Teacher Thrashed By ‘Goons’ For Objecting Filming Of Female Students On Picnic

Srinagar: A teacher of a private school in Baramulla suffered a blood clot in his head after he was thrashed allegedly by goons at a village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Saturday for objecting to their filming of female students on way back from a school picnic, the teachers’ colleagues said.

Sheikh Irfan, a physical teacher at Hanfia Model Higher Secondary School, Kreeri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, was hit with an iron rod by locals in Raiyar village of Budgam at around 7:45 pm on Saturday after he along with his colleagues objected to the boys’ filming of the girls, Jehangir Ahmad, Irfan’s colleague told Kashmir Reader.

The school buses had stopped in the village after one of the vehicles broke down on the roadside there, Jehangir said.

“Seeing the boys shooting the girls, we pleaded with them to delete the video. In the ensuing argument, the boys started beating us including the students,” Jehangir recalled.

What shocked the students and the school staff, was that the nearby shopkeepers and passersby instead of reprimanding the boys or at least stopping them from further beating them, joined the goons and beat them to the pulp, Jehangir narrated.

He said one of the locals hit Irfan with an iron rod on his head leaving him grievously injured.

One of the locals even tried to attack the staff and students with axe, as per the teacher.

“He had a student almost stabbed with the axe had I not been there. As it was getting darker, we could not figure out who was beating whom,” he said.

Seeing their teachers’ helplessness, many girl students fainted, he added.
A teacher said that over a dozen mobile phones of the students and a few wallets were missing.

Irfan, he said, has been diagnosed with a blood clot and is undergoing treatment at SKIMS Soura.

It was only after the staffers were beaten black and blue did a few village elders intervene and asked the locals why they were beating the teachers and students.

“They later asked for forgiveness on behalf of the locals, but it was no fun as they had already thrashed us,” a teacher said.

SSP Budgam, Amod Nagpure said an FIR had been registered over the incident.

Police is identifying the culprits and arrests would be made in coming days, Nagpure added. (KR)