'Ghost' forces Pune school to shut down

In a weird incident, a school in Pune has been temporarily closed after a standard 5th student claimed that he had seen a 'ghost' coming out of the blackboard, leading to a frenzied exodus from the building.

The authorities at Lady Halima Begum Urdu Primary School in Kondhva area have suspended all classes till Monday, as parents said the children were fearful and did not want to go to the school.

According to Parvika Khan, the teacher who was conducting an Urdu class for std 5th on March 7, a boy was asked to read the text written on the blackboard.

But the boy said the blackboard was blank, and ran away screaming that he saw an "egg-shaped ghost" coming out of the blackboard.

It set off panic among students, and led to closure of the school for the day.

"It is a conspiracy to defame the school by someone who must have prompted the boy in order to create a scare. We have lodged a police complaint asking for an inquiry into the matter," said Rashid Khan, chairman of the Western Maharashtra Educational Trust, which runs the school.

School authorities have decided to suspend classes till Monday to enable parents remove the fear from the children's minds, he said.