MULTAN, Nov 11: The Islami Jamiat Tulaba, a student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan, has demanded removal of the Bahauddin Zakariya University vice-chancellor from service for his alleged involvement in malpractices.

Dozens of IJT activists belonging to various educational institutions of the district, including the BZU, staged a protest demonstration on Tuesday in front of the local press club to condemn what they alleged biased attitude of the BZU administration.

The protesters had held banners and placards emblazoned with slogans against the BZU VC and the armed clash at a university hostel between IJT and People’s Students Federation on Friday last. They alleged that the clash was started by the PSF activists at the behest of the university administration.

The BZU administration, they said, was guilty of “sabotaging” the peace of the institution just to cover up financial and administrative wrongdoings of the VC and his cronies. “The VC is working on the policy of divide and rule,” IJT city Nazim Hasnain Raza alleged while speaking on the occasion.

He said the police could not recover arms and ammunition from the hostels during their operation after the clash, but the university administration was conspiring to implicate the IJT workers in fake cases of arms recovery.

He recalled that when the sitting VC was a hostel warden in 1996, his pro-PSF strategies had resulted in an armed clash in January that year between the two organizations. Two lives were lost in the clash.

On the other hand, the PSF office-bearers, while speaking at press conference on Monday last, accused some of the university’s teachers of harbouring the IJT activists. However, they claimed that the clash was a bid of some “hidden forces” to divert attention from the irregularities being committed at the university.

The activists of the IJT and PSF had clashed on Friday last at Usman Hall of the hostel in which several students suffered injuries. Later, some 26 activists of both the organizations were arrested by the Allap police.