LAHORE: Hundreds of students of various educational institutes of the city on Friday protested outside the Punjab Assembly against the arrest of the fellows who were protesting against on-campus examinations.

The students gathered at Charing Cross on The Mall to protest the arrest of more than 40 students for demanding online examinations. They demanded immediate release of the arrested students and also holding those involved in torture of students accountable. They said the peaceful protesters were brutally tortured and humiliated for demanding online examinations.

A student leader, Ammar Ali Jan said the fascist government was using every measure from baton-charge to arrest of the students to stop them from raising their voice but the students had shown courage and did not surrender before their brutalities. He congratulated the students for coming out again and standing outside the Punjab Assembly to protest against the state brutalities and arrest of their classmates.

He said the government was using force against every protester -- be it teachers, farmers, students and labourers. He demanded that the government release the students and quash all cases registered against them.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the protesting students were attacked outside a private university by its baton-wielding security guards. As a result, five of the students suffered head injuries.

Report sought from police on ‘illegal detention’ of students

The Nawab Town police registered a case against 95 nominated and 400-500 unidentified students under sections 452, 506/B, 148, 149, 427, 342, 290, 291, 440, 436, 269, and 270 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 16 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960 on the complaint of university’s chief security officer Naveed Mukhtar.

Police also took 36 of the protesters into custody and they were later presented before a judicial magistrate on Wednesday. They were handed over to police on a three-day physical remand.

On Thursday, five more students were arrested in an early morning police raid at a house at Iqbal Town. The raid was conducted by a heavily-armed police team on the house of Sanaullah, a student activist, in Raza Block of Iqbal Town, picking Progressive Students’ Collective (PSC) Lahore president Zubair Siddiqui, secretary general Ali Ashraf, information secretary Salman Sikandar, an activist Haris and the house owner.

On Friday morning, the students were presented before the court and they were handed over to police on three-day physical remand.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2021