RAWALPINDI, Oct 11: Reports that `masked men` entered a girls school in the city last Friday and beat them up, demanding they dress modestly and wear Hijab, caused quite a stir at home and abroad.

An investigation by Dawn, however, found the eye-witnesses and the school`s students and administration expressing conflicting views on the incident.

According to the administration of the M.C.

Girls Model School in B-Block of Satellite Town, the mob just wanted to close down the institution as mark of protest against the death sentence of the Punjab governor`s assassin and did not touch any student.

However, some of the girls tended to confirm the incident as reported by some local and international media on Sunday that `masked men` forced themselves in the girls school and beat up its students for not wearing Hijab and proper dresses.

Other witnesses said the boys who raided the school were indeed protesters, with some hiding their faces behind handkerchiefs.

They had been roaming around the B-Block area demanding the closure of businesses and government offices.

Dawn understands the incident occurred on October 7 between 10am and 11:30am when many areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi were closed as a result of a strike announced by religious groups to protest the death sentence passed on Mumtaz Qadri.According to witnesses, a group of boys with their faces covered and holding batons in their hands entered Municipal Corporation Model School for Girls and demanded the school be closed in the spirit of the strike.

Principal Kishwar Naheed of the school said she was sitting in her office doing routine work when she heard noises. She realised that a number of youth were trying to enter the small doorway through the school`s gate (since the big gate was locked) so she asked the guard to close the door and not let them in. At that point the boys pushed themselves in through the smaller gate forcefully.

Once they were inside, the principal said she scolded them: `What are you doing? This is a girl`s school, these are your sisters.

She said the boys demanded that the school be closed and it abide the announced strike.

Unlike other reports, the teachers of the school said the boys did not touch or harm anyone in the girls school. Ms Naheed said the boys, who had their faces covered with handkerchiefs, looked no older than in their teens.

With their rowdiness, and holding batons and sticks, the boys were still an intimidating sight for the young students.

Fortunately, according to eye-witness reports, their presence in the school was no longer than five minutes.

But that briefest of an encounter was enough to scare the young girls of the school as well as their parents. The next day saw a small attendance of 34 students. One student revealed that the boys broke a window of thecomputer lab however no one was hurt.

`They didn`t hurt anyone, they didn`t even come into any class. They just hit some windows of the IT lab. Our teachers told them that this is a girls school and they are afraid that they will get hurt, please leave. And they left,` she said.

The group of boys also entered the MC Boys Model School located exactly behind the girl`s school. Here, the mob of boys was a lot rowdier.

According to the Principal, Mohammad Amjad Waheed, he saw 20 to 25 boys enter the school (while more remained outside) and barged into the first grade and seventh grade classes.

The Principal reported they presented a boisterous and scary sight repeatedly beating their sticks against the walls and being noisy.

In the classroom of grade 7, they pulled the teacher, Mr. Aftab Najmi, out of the seat and motioned as if they`ll hit him.

Principal Waheed said the students of some classes immediately ran out while others were kept in their classrooms by teachers and the classrooms` doors locked.

As soon as the scary youth left, the students who had ran out were brought back and safely returned to their parents at the end of the day.

Mr Waheed contacted the police but they only appeared in a patrol car after the boys had lef t and were not useful in any way.

Teacher Najmi was not happy about how media made a big story out of the incident.However he was fearful too about the future.

`This time the teachers did their best to defend their students,` he said, wondering `If something worse happens, who will protect us?` When this scribe interviewed the students, they reported similar things. While the principals seemed trying to make the incident look small, the students reported that some of them were beaten by the mob. One even reported seeing a banner being held by the mob with the name of a local seminary.

However, their stories could not be corroborated. The Education Officer managing these schools, Chaudhry Shahbaz, confirmed that the mob of boys entered the schools, demanded for them to be closed and then left.

AAMIR YASIN ADDS: District Coordination Officer (DCO) and Rawalpindi Administrator Saqib Zafar on Tuesday dismissed the reports that the student and teacher of Municipal Corporation (MC) Girls Model High School, B-Block Satellite Town were beaten up by seminary students, protesting against conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, Friday last.

`It is wrong that the protesters forced the female students to wear Hijab and proper dressing,` he clarified and added that the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) did not allow any body to challenge the writ of the government.

He said that the special branch of police also denied the incident and said in its report that protesters tried to shut down the schools to make their strike successful.