Residents of Swat's Charbagh take to the streets against deadly firing on school van.

Scores of people poured into the streets of the Charbagh tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swat on Wednesday to protest against yesterday's firing at a school van, which killed a student and injured seven others.

On Tuesday, a policeman posted outside the Sangota Public School allegedly suddenly opened fire at a school van. The suspect, identified as Alam Khan, was immediately arrested after the incident and a first information report was registered against him.

According to the Swat Police Public Relations Officer Moin Fayyaz, the suspect was presented before a court today, where he confessed to the crime. The cop was subsequently sent to jail.

However, residents of Charbagh - during a demonstration staged at the Charbagh bazaar and organised by the Matorzee Qami Jirga Charbagh - sought an immediate inquiry against the 'black sheep' in the police.

The protesters, while chanting anti-police slogans, condemned the 'obnoxious act' of the police personnel and demanded that 'extremist elements' within the police should be identified.

Civil society members Naveed Iqbal, Sawb Khan, Hilal Danish, Aftab Ahmad, Adalat Khan, Javed Ali and Advocate Haider Ali were among the prominent speakers during the protest.

The protesters said that the incident of firing a school van by a police cop was shocking news. 'We can't believe that the security personnel, on duty to protect the school children, opened firing on them,' said Naveed, one of the protesters.

'The higher authorities must clean the police force from negative elements by conducting a thorough survey so that no such incident occurs in the future,' said Hilal, another protester.

The residents further warned...