ISLAMABAD: The Secretariat police arrested three students for their alleged involvement in a clash between two groups of students at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on Saturday.

The police also recovered a weapon used during the clash which left 10 to 15 students injured.

The clash broke out after an altercation between members of the university’s Sindhi and Baloch student councils. The two sides, which had been traditional allies in the past, clashed once before a couple of months ago. At the time, the matter was settled.

After the incident on Saturday, the university management decided to suspend classes till further order. An operation was also launched to clean the campus of weapons.

Investigation officer (IO) at the Secretariat police station Azhar Mehmood told Dawn that three students belonging to the Sindh Council were arrested and a weapon was recovered from them.

“During the investigation the students confessed to opening fire. They also said the weapon used during the clash had been placed under a water tank on the roof of the university hostel. So we recovered the weapon from there,” he said. The IO said the physical remand of the suspects had been obtained from a local magistrate for two days.

The police have nominated 28 students in the FIR of the clash in which the police claimed 10 to 15 students were injured.

According to sources, however, around 35 students were brought to different hospitals after the incident. But a majority of them had sustained minor injuries or were affected by tear gas shelling by the police.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017