Education official assaults gatekeeper of private school in Shopian, official denies allegations

April 8, 2023 by News Desk

Meer Irfan

An education officer allegedly assaulted a gatekeeper in a private school in the Zainapora area in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, a claim denied by officials.

Talking to The Kashmiriyat, Bilal Ahmed, a gatekeeper said that on Saturday morning, he noticed an unknown vehicle with unknown people on board honking at the gate of the school. “I asked them to park their vehicle and come inside because my duty is to safeguard the gates of the school,” Bilal said.

“The person in the vehicle told me that he had come to visit the school and asked me to open the gate to which I said that that he should mind his behaviour,” he added.

The official got angry for some reason and slapped me three-four times and even broke my glasses, Bilal claimed.

“What mistake had I committed ? I just did my duty to stop and check who the person is. After he assaulted me and broke my glasses, now he claims that he is a senior education officer. If he had told me earlier why would I stop him? He not only misbehaved me but beat me also. I want justice,” Bilal told The Kashmiriyat.

The officer upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat denied the allegations of assaulting the gatekeeper and said that he told the gatekeeper to open the door as he was on an inspection and he was the ZEO.

“He (Gatekeeper) told me to park the car outside and then come inside and also misbehave with me. He was rude,” claimed the official.

“I am zonal officer Imam Sahab and we got complaints from parents that the school is not following Government norms of selling text books.

Eyewitness told The Kashmiriyat that they saw the ZEO assaulted the gatekeeper. “It is a gatekeeper’s duty to check who is coming inside the school. He was only performing his duty and ZEO has no right to beat him up,” she said.

Another eyewitness told The Kashmiriyat that ZEO pulled the gatekeeper by collar and dragged him inside.