KARACHI: 10 injured as student groups clash at SSUET
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 16: At least 10 people were injured when two groups of students clashed over the distribution of stickers at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology on Wednesday.
According to sources on the campus, some of the injured students had to be rushed to hospital. Teaching also had to be suspended for the day as disturbances lasted more than one-and-a-half hours. Police also moved into the campus when the university’s security staff and two policemen already deployed there failed to contain the situation, the sources said.
The trouble reportedly started when a group of Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) students were busy distributing stickers, inscribed with slogan ‘Proud to be SSUET students’, to express students’ support to the affiliation with the university. The stickers carried no student group name. Some of the students belonging to the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organization (APMSO) objected to the sticker campaign. “The IJT liners were given a rough deal which provoked a free-for-all,” the sources said.
Police picked up some of the students involved in the violence and kept them in detention for several hours. A couple of other students who had sustained injuries were also not allowed to leave hospital till late in the night. Leaders, including MPAs, of the two groups’ parent parties visited the university and hospital. No FIR with regard to the incident was lodged till late Wednesday.
A spokesman for the university described the clash, which started around 9am, as ‘a case of intolerance and traditional rivalry’ and opined that such incidents used to take place at educational institutions. While maintaining that university was absolutely neutral and did the needful timely to deal with the situation, the spokesman revealed that the varsity authorities had ordered a thorough enquiry into the affair and recommended action against any culprit without any discrimination. The action, he elaborated, also included rustication.
He said that four/five students from both the sides were injured in the clash. He rejected the claim that three IJT activists were missing. Meanwhile, an IJT source claimed that outsiders were also involved in attacks on its workers. It alleged that sticks, rods and bottles were used by the attackers during the clash.
On its part, the APMSO claimed in a press release that six of its workers and some teachers were injured when some armed outsiders, at the behest of a religious party, entered the campus and created trouble. It deplored arrest of certain APMSO workers and said that they were being implicated in a false case.
According to the medico-legal officer of the JPMC, six students belonging to IJT were brought to the hospital from SSUET on Wednesday. He identified them as Saad Ahmad, Riaz Durrani, Saad Ali, Danish, Ihtesham Shaheen and Tariq Mahmood.
The university will reopen on Friday after remaining closed on Thursday on account of the Urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai on Thursday.
