KARACHI: The Sindh government has ordered an inquiry into the allegation that a student organisation forcibly stopped several students of the University of Karachi from celebrating Holi on the campus.

In a video that went viral on social media, a girl student of KU alleged that activists of a student organisation did not allow some Hindu students of Sindhi Department to celebrate Holi and allegedly beat them up.

The viral video forced the varsity administration to issue a denial. However, Sindh Minister for Universities and Boards Ismail Rahoo and Minority Affairs Minister Gianchand Israni took notice of the incident and ordered an inquiry.

Minister Rahoo directed the KU vice chancellor to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a detailed report. “Hindu students are free to celebrate Holi on the campus and no one can prevent them,” he tweeted.

Minister Israni said in a statement that he had talked to Minister Rahoo and Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon and they informed him that an inquiry had been launched. He said that people of all faiths enjoyed freedom to celebrate their religious festivals in Sindh.

PML-N lawmaker Kheel Das Kohistani in a statement condemned the incident and said the KU administration and IGP gave him assurance of taking legal action against those responsible for such an incident.

Meanwhile, a KU statement stated that “no permission was taken from the university administration about celebrating Holi on the campus”. It said that the girl student, who was in the viral video, was being called to furnish details about the incident.

East-SSP Zubair Nazeer Shaikh told Dawn that police visited the campus and the varsity administration told them that an event on Seeratun Nabi and a Holi event were being organised simultaneously. He said according to the KU administration, an “exchange of hot words” had taken place at the place where Holi was being celebrated, but no incident of violence occurred.

Meanwhile, the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba tweeted a video statement stating that the party respected the minorities. It denied all the allegations which it said levelled against it by some nationalist group.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023