KARACHI, May 10: Police have arrested eight students at the Saifi Institute of Technology in North Nazimabad on Saturday following a clash between two student groups.

Police also registered a case against 42 students of the Jamia Millia Institute, but no one was arrested.

A heavy contingent of the police reached the Saifee Institute after two groups of students used kicks, blows and clubs to attack each other.

The police picked up some students and took them to North Nazimabad PS where an FIR No.162/03 was registered against them for breach of peace.

The police arrested six students of Islami Jamiat Talaba, and two belonging to APMSO.

Police said both the groups claimed that they had been denied entry into the institution.

At the Jamia Millia Institute, the police said one group reportedly attacked their rivals. Police said the members of the APMSO complained that a group of IJT men attacked and injured them.

Another FIR was registered at the Al-Falah police station in which 42 students belonging to the IJT have been nominated.

High police officials called the representatives of the two groups for talks to resolve their issues. The police warned them of taking stern action if they did not resolve issues through talks.

In the meantime, the two major students groups traded charges against each other for violation of an agreement reached between them earlier at a high-level meeting, convened by the provincial home department some two weeks back after repeated incidents of violence at academic institutions in the city.

The IJT said that the APMSO was pampering outsiders, who surrounded the Saify Institute at 12 noon and resorted to stone-pelting.

They made the IJT workers and teachers to stay indoors for three hours. They also threw six homemade bombs on the college premises, which caused a loss to the college property, including its mosque.

An IJT leader, Shoaib Ahmad, claimed that unlike other days, the police were not present at the college since Saturday morning and as such the outsiders were at their ease to roam freely. However, situation changed only around 3 pm when a heavy contingent of rangers and police appeared on the scene and only then the students and teachers were able to get out of the institute’s premises.

APMSO’s information and publication secretary Tahir Yousuf said that hostilities began when some 20-25 students of the institute, who were party workers as well, were not allowed entry into the college.

He claimed that the IJT workers resorted to firing from within the institute, while the law-enforcers were not available despite efforts.

He said that three of the APMSO workers were injured by the IJT men. He said it was calculated move by the IJT, which was working under its network that existed in the area.

He said in a similar incident, two APMSO workers were injured outside the Jamia Millia College. The IJT workers at the college did not allow our workers to enter the premises around 12.30 pm, he added.

“Apparently there was no reason for any altercation or hostilities between the two groups.”