Ruckus erupts over appointment of Urdu teachers in Islampur school, 1 student killed

Kolkata: One student was killed and some others including three policemen were injured in the violence that broke out over appointment of teachers at a school in Islampur in North Dinajpur district, on Thursday afternoon.

Students of the school alleged that the deceased Rajesh Sarkar, a former student of the school, died of bullet injury after police fired to disperse their protest against the appointment of three Urdu teachers at Daribhit High School.

DIG North Dinajpur Jayanta Kumar Pal said: "As per information, there was no firing on the part of the police. Police do not carry firearms in case of such incidents. However, we will conduct an enquiry to find out what led to the unfortunate death."

According to sources, the police were accompanying the three teachers to the Islampur school, when the students protested and allegedly started pelting stones as they did not want these teachers to join the school.

They were protesting against the appointment since Tuesday, stating that they did not need the Urdu teachers and instead demanded teachers for other subjects.

When the police tried to enter the premises of the schools, they were allegedly attacked and three policemen, including a woman constable, sustained bleeding injuries due to stone pelting. Following this, the police lathicharged and threw tear-gas shells to break the protests.

However, students claimed that police had fired on them unprovoked, which resulted in the bullet injury of Rajesh. He succumbed to his injuries after being brought to Islampur Sub-Divisional Hospital. The other injured are under treatment.

According to the agitating students, a verbal agreement was also reached between the students, local villagers and the school's administration on Wednesday, after the local Block Development Officer (BDO) reached the area and promised that the Urdu teachers won't be appointed.

Islampur MLA Kanhaiyalal Agarwal said that police have told him that they did not open fire on the protesting students. "I have seen the body and he was hit at the back. But the local police station told me that police did not open fire. Everything will be clear after the post-mortem," he said.