Students Saturday staged violent protests against the government’s decision to hold examinations of matric and intermediate from next month.

According to 24NewsHD TV Channel, the young protesters belonging to different colleges and schools in both cities demanded the government to take online papers as they had studied their syllabus in the same way.

In Lahore, the students staged a protest outside Punjab Governor’s House and blocked the Mall Road while the student held a demonstration at Faizabad that later become violent as police and students pelted stones and teargas shelling both sides.

The protesters were chanting slogans against the sitting government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood’s educational policies with a demand of delaying exams.

A large number of students from different colleges came out on the roads of Rawalpindi on Saturday and held a protest demonstration at Faizabad, completely blocking the road leading to Islamabad and resulting in a severe traffic jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbBXWHjZzOg

Shouting slogans against Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, the students asked him and provincial ministers for education to revisit their decision because of the situation, arising out of the coronavirus.

They demanded that the government administered online classes for the reason of the Covid-19 situation this year so the exams should also be held online.

Some of the students of different colleges also held a protest demonstration in Taunsa Sharif and chanted slogans against the PTI bigwigs and educational authorities.

Taunsa Assistant Commissioner Rabia Sial tried to held negotiations with students to end their protest against the government but failed. Later, on her direction, law enforcement agencies attacked the protesters to disperse them with several students getting injured. The police also arrested some protesters.

Students in Gojra also held a protest rally on motorbikes and demanded the government and educational authorities to postpone exams as they couldn’t succeed in preparations of exams properly.

Reporter Usman Javed Malik