PESHAWAR
Police on Tuesday baton charged Workers Welfare Board (WWB) employees and used teargases to disperse their rally in the provincial capital.
Hundreds of WWB employees took out a protest rally in front of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly demanding increase in salaries, pension, and service structure.
However, when the protesting employees kept the Khyber Road for long hours, police resorted to baton charge and used teargas to disperse them.
Two persons have also sustained injuries after the police baton charged and teargases shelling on the protesters.
Police arrested several protesters and shifted them to a police mobile van. The protest and police action caused severe traffic mess on main Khyber Road and many adjacent roads for quite some time.
Demonstrators said that the provincial government was making the workers WWB unemployed under a conspiracy and despite the decision of the Supreme Court, the employees were not being given permanent status.
They demanded the provincial government to issue regularization notification of more than 3000 male and female teachers performing duties in different WWB educational institutions of the province.
They also threatened if their demands were not met effectively, the employees would extend their protest to the entire province.
Moreover, the provincial president of Awami National Party (ANP) Aimal Wali Khan has criticized the provincial government for baton-charging and arresting the protesting employees of WWB and asking it to release them immediately.
In a statement issued from the Bacha Khan Markaz, Aimal Wali has said that the provincial government should accept the demands of the teachers protesting for their rights of regularization, adding that several women were also part of the protest that was baton-charged by the police.
