ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Some students of the International Islamic University (IIU) on Saturday hijacked three mini-buses and forced the district administration to release one of the 14 colleagues arrested during Friday’s protest demonstrations.

The public transport vehicles were released only after the district administration and the police accepted their demand to release the fellow on bail.

The student, released on bail was identified as Saghir — a member of the Islami Jamiat Talaba, the students’ wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami, which was one of the 35 component parties of the Afghan Defence Council that had given the call for the Friday strike.

The police said the students had hijacked the buses of different routes from various places in Islamabad and moved them to the IIU campus after forcing out the passengers. The buses remained at the campus till the hijacking drama ended at 3pm.

Drivers and conductors of the buses were also held hostage by the students.

Sources said that the district administration and the police acted frantically to get the buses released as soon as possible, fearing that the situation might aggravate further.

Margalla Police Station SHO Sheikh Zubair later in the evening claimed that the buses had been seized by the students to bring out a rally, who, however, refrained from doing so on being “advised” against any such adventure. No case had been registered against the hijackers till the filing of this report.

More than 1,300 people were booked by the Islamabad police in connection with the anti-US protest demonstrations on Friday.

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