Four children belonging to the Ahmadi community living in Qasran area of Attock in Punjab province for many years have been expelled from a private school on the basis of their faith.
According to a notification issued by the Mithial campus of the school called ‘The Educators‘, four students of classes 3, 6, 9 and 10 are being expelled from the school for belonging to the Ahmadiyya religion.
The parents of these children say that the school was under pressure from other children, parents and local people, after which they suddenly got a notice one day that their children have been expelled from this school.
Meanwhile, when contacted by the BBC, the principal of the school said that she did not want to make ‘any kind of comment’ on the incident.
“Notice received that your children have been expelled”
When contacted by the BBC, the families of these children said that these children had been studying in this school for many years and even when it was called Allied School, the children were teased for being Ahmadis, on which the parents had redeemed his school.
He says that when the name of the school was changed, the principal there assured him to re-admit and stop this behavior. The principal said don’t worry. There will be no problem with the children here on the basis of religion.
These parents said that after re-admission, these children were studying here for three or four years. “Our children and other children used to be discriminated against, but then over the last several months, they started being bullied more.”
He also alleged that our children were often harassed by other children and teachers. We always told our children to forgive, everything will be alright. But this time the problem came up at once.
He says that among the children who have been expelled from the school, there is also a class IX child who had to be registered with the board for his exams. His parents were called and asked that there is a box on the form that the child is Muslim or non-Muslim. We told them that you should write what your heart does. The very next day we got a notice that your children have been expelled from school.
“When we went to the school management, we felt from their words that there was pressure on the principal from the local population, children and teachers, due to which they had to take this step. We also asked if it is the policy of the educators not to admit Ahmadi children and they replied that it is not. After that we did not send our children to school
