ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: A student of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) was killed and at least five others were injured in a clash between two groups on Monday.

Sources in the QAU said tension prevailed between the Pakhtoon Council and the Punjab Council, the two groups of students, for the last few days. Three days ago the situation became explosive and the Secretariat Police had to intervene in the matter, they said.

“However, the university management refused to allow any police deployment on the campus, arguing that it was an internal matter and would be sorted out internally,” the sources said.

However, on Monday, things got completely out of control when members of both groups started firing at each other with semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

As a result, Naseeruddin, a student of history department, was killed and five others sustained injuries. The injured were brought to the Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH) where once again the rival students clashed and the hospital security staff and police had to intervene.

A doctor in the emergency department of the FGSH told Dawn that Naseeruddin was brought in a very critical condition to the hospital where allout efforts were made to save him, but he died. Eyewitnesses of the incident said heavy firing broke out between students from the two groups.

The university administration officials, however, refuted these ‘allegations’ and said it was a brief encounter during which some shots were fired and one bullet hit Naseeruddin who later died.

Following the incident, the QAU administration, according to some reports, has closed the university for 10 days and has ordered for the eviction of all students from the boys’ hostels.

However, a senior QAU official said the university had been closed for an indefinite period. “We certainly would not like to close the institution for a longer period. Tomorrow we will see the situation and take a definite decision in this regard,” Salman Malik, provost of the QAU hostels, told Dawn.

Meanwhile, Dr Etzaz Ahmed, president of the QAU ASA, said a few months ago a similar incident of violence was witnessed in the university in which a girl was shot dead by a fellow student who later committed suicide.

“At that time we protested against the presence of arms and division of students on ethnic grounds. But, not much was done to prevent such incidents in future. Now, after today’s incident we reiterate our demand that the writ of the university should be implemented and administrative decisions should not be left to the students. It is the job of the administration which should take the responsibility,” Dr Etzaz said.