FAISALABAD: Enraged students set six buses ablaze after a sophomore was fatally run over by a public transport vehicle on Sargodha Road on Friday.

Haider Ali, a second-year student of the Government Islamia College, was on way to the institute when a bus hit him and he died within minutes. No sooner had the word got round than a number of students gathered on the road and protested the incident.

Eyewitnesses said some drivers and crew of public transport vehicles beat the students who went beside themselves in rage and smashed windowpanes of the bus with iron rods and clubs outside the college. The students torched four buses outside the college and two at Jamia Chishtia Chowk that became the flashpoint after the accident.

The students, reports said, did not allow the Rescue 1122 to extinguish the fire.

Owing to violent protest, a good number of students could not return homes and stayed inside the college. A team of Elite Force and police rescued the students who stayed away from the mob and many of them were taken away by the official vehicles and dropped at a bus stop a few meters away from the college. The deceased, who resided at Nishatabad’s Haiderbad area, was one of the six siblings.

The drivers and their helpers also staged a demonstration to protest violence and chanted slogans against police. They told reporters that had police reached the spot in time, a lot of damage could have been avoided. And even once there, the officials played the role of a silent spectator, they alleged.

City Police Officer Afzal Kausar told Dawn that teams were conducting raids to arrest the students who set the buses ablaze.

Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani told Dawn it was decided that classes in the college would remain suspended on Saturday (today).

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017