Islamabad police on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for 37 students of the Quaid-i-Azam University, where academic activities have been suspended for at least two weeks due to protests by students, DawnNews reported.

A deadlock between students and the university's administration has persisted since Oct 4 when students went on strike demanding that those who were expelled for causing unrest on campus a couple of months ago be restored.

During the protest, students had blocked the main university road and barred the university from running buses to pick up students and faculty.

The students have been holding the strike on a call from the Quaidian Student Foundation, and have demanded that the university should restore expelled students, improve students’ facilities, construct new hotels and so on.

However, their main focus is the immediate restoration of the expelled students.

QAU Vice-Chancellor Dr Javed Ashraf had told the protesting students that he had no power to restore the expelled students, but he promised to place the matter before the university syndicate. The protesters, however, demanded immediate restoration.

Police teams have been formed for the arrest of the 37 students and will conduct raids over the next 24 hours to do the same, DawnNews reported.