PESHAWAR: Students particularly the non-locals suffered the worst due to the four-day spell of violent protests in the restive parts of Hazara division particularly Abbottabad, which came to an end on Thursday apparently with the passage of the 18th Amendment by the Upper House of the Parliament.

The administration of Abbottabad, Haripur and Mansehra had announced closure of all the educational institutions for three days after the violence on Monday that left eight people dead and around a hundred injured.

The schools, colleges and universities in the three districts reopened on Thursday. But attendance was quiet low, as majority of the non-local students could not return due to the non-availability of transport till Wednesday night.

The non-local students had also suffered great hardships in going home in other districts of the province and elsewhere in the country after their institutions were closed and the hostels vacated.

Hailing from Peshawar, one such student of a private institute of engineering sciences told The News that he along with 20 other fellows managed to reach the provincial metropolis after 12-hour drive. The journey could be normally covered in three hours. He said that they had to change four vehicles to reach Peshawar, as the roads were blocked and transport not available.

Abbottabad is also referred to as the city of schools for housing leading educational institutions from pre-nursery to PhD level, medical colleges, engineering universities and other professional institutes. These seats of learning attract students from across the country.

If development is judged from education, Abbottabad can be termed as the most developed city of the province with over 90 per cent literacy rate. Also it has far better infrastructure than any other city of the province including the provincial capital.

Abbottabad has five medical colleges including the public sector Ayub Medical College and Women Medical College, Frontier Medical College, Abbottabad International Medical College and National Institute of Medical Sciences in private sector.

There are two engineering universities — a sub-campus of NWFP University of Engineering and Technology and Comsats — besides a university of science and technology Abbottabad in the city. Also there are more than 50 other educational institutions of high standard like Army Burn Hall College, Abbottabad Public School and others.The news