PESHAWAR: Students turn violent against loadshedding
By Sadia Qasim Shah
PESHAWAR, July 12: Enraged students of the University of Peshawar ransacked a post office and smashed windowpanes of campus buildings on Wednesday night in protest against hours’ long loadshedding.
The students, who were busy preparing for their examinations, became annoyed because of continuous loadshedding and came out of their hostels at around 12 midnight.
They protested against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and said the power breakdowns had disrupted their studies, adding that extremely hot weather conditions had made life unbearable in their congested hostel rooms.
Police on the campus resorted to teargas shelling when the protesters turned violent and registered an FIR against the unidentified students for damaging the Post Mall located inside the campus.
Earlier, the students had demonstrated against the power crisis on Wednesday evening and dispersed only after district Nazim Ghulam Ali assured them of immediate relief.
Students hailing from villages had stayed back at the university hostel to prepare for their examinations scheduled for next month but due to the continuous loadshedding it was becoming difficult for them to concentrate on their studies, a student of political science complained.
Another student said they had been unable to either sleep or study for the past many days.
The students had held a protest march in front of the vice-chancellor’s office a few days back but even the VC expressed his helplessness in solving the problem.
The students had warned the university administration that if the breakdown continued, the officials and the Pesco would be held responsible for any untoward incident.
Loadshedding in other parts of the provincial metropolis for long hours by Pesco has also increased the woes of the citizens in the severe humid and hot weather and caused restlessness in the public.
