KARACHI, April 6: Academic activities could not be restored at the Sindh Medical College on Tuesday as tension gripped the campus, said college sources.
Both teaching and examination activities were put off on Saturday last, following a brawl between two groups of students, which took place on Friday.
Academic activities were partially disturbed on Friday as well, but they have remained completely suspended since Saturday, according to a source. Students had reported for teaching classes and MBBS examinations' viva voce on Tuesday, but they had been denied entry into the premises by the police to avoid any untoward, said two SMC students.
Another college source said that neither the police nor the college administration wanted to take any risk by allowing students entry into the campus as two ethnic student groups involved in the violent incident of Friday were not ready to patch up their differences. Another meeting between the two groups in question was scheduled for Tuesday night, the source added.
An MBBS examination candidate said that police had kept him and other candidates outside the gate and had asked them to either wait for the outcome of the meeting of administrative officials or call the college principal later in the day for information about their classes and examinations.
When contacted, a senior official of the college said that in view of the tension, students who were terrified due to the clash on the campus had decided to stay outside and as such the examinations could not be held.
"Anticipating that sanity would prevail on the campus on Wednesday, we have planned to restore the examinations and teaching activities from the day," SMC Principal Prof Akbar H. Soomro told Dawn in the evening on Tuesday.
It was further learnt that new dates of the viva voce which could not be held on April 5 and 6 had been displayed at the college notice board, while other examinations scheduled for April 7 and onwards would remain unchanged.
