SRINAGAR: Eighteen-year-old Irshad Ahmad Shah of Sehpora in Ganderbal district in central Kashmir died on Tuesday after consuming poison as he was disturbed over not doing well in the ‘tough’ maths paper set for the Class XII board examination last week, family sources said.

Thousands of students of Class XII on Tuesday held a protest demonstration inside the premises of the Board of School Education for the second day against the maths paper set by the Board.

One of Irshad’s relatives Reyaz Ahmed said that his cousin was a student of the Boys Higher Secondary School Soura and was very bright and had always passed his previous exams with flying colours. “After appearing in the maths paper, Irshad was dejected and perturbed and he told his family that the paper was out of syllabus and he wanted to die,” Reyaz said.

Family sources said that Irshad consumed poison on Tuesday afternoon. He was immediately rushed to Sub District Hospital Ganderbal from where he was shifted to SKIMS. Doctors declared him brought dead in hospital.

The police said that they are waiting for the post mortem report. “It would be premature to comment on the cause of death as we have not completed investigations yet,” police said.

Hundreds of Class XII students had on Monday staged protest demonstrations at Press Enclave alleging that the paper was twisted and out of syllabus.

When contacted joint secretary to Board of School Education, Mehboob Hussain said that an expert committee has been constituted to probe the matter and it has been directed to submit its report within three days.

“If it is proved that the paper was out of syllabus, then certainly the paper setter would face action. Last year, one of the paper setters was suspended in this connection,” Hussain said.

“My sympathies are with the family and I assure all the students that after seeking opinion from experts, a proper decision would be taken in this regard,” he added.