HYDERABAD, March 27: Some unidentified miscreants resorted to firing at the residence of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Vice-Chancellor Dr A. Q. Rajput in Latifabad-6 here on Friday.

The firing created panic and harassment in the area.

Inquiries conducted by this correspondent revealed that the miscreants, after firing, told the wife of Mr Rajput by telephone that the firing was aimed at teaching a lesson to him. After 15 minutes, they made another call and issued a similar threat.

Sources said that the vice chancellor had been pressurised by a nationalist group to pass a student of 1998 batch of electronics department who had to appear in many supplementary examinations. The vice chancellor and the teachers of the university had refused to oblige.

Meanwhile, academic heads and teachers and officers association of the university at a joint meeting held at the Jamshoro campus on Saturday condemned the firing incident.

Expressing support to the vice-chancellor, they said that he was taking courageous steps to implement the rules of the university but some people wanted him to violate the rules by favouring a student who did not qualify to appear in the examination.

The meeting was attended among others by the university registrar Professor Ali Akbar Memon, teachers' association president Professor Mushtaq Mirani and others.

DISTANCE LEARNING: The Mehran University of Engineering and Technology has been selected, besides others, for the university enterprise partnership and income generation activities management course.