HYDERABAD/DADU: Around 20 Jeay Sindh Students Federation (JSSF) activists, 10 of them said to be their leaders, were rounded up during a clash between a large number of nationalist elements and police, escorted by Rangers personnel, at Sindh University, Jamshoro, late on Friday evening.

Two policemen were reported injured and their mobile van was extensively damaged in the violent incident.

The JSSF activists and supporters had gathered on the campus to observe ‘Yaum-i-Sindh’, believed to be a Sindhudesh-related event, for which the university administration had declined permission.

JSSF activists had also taken out a rally from Arts faculty to the central library earlier in the day.

In the evening, they held the event’s proceedings on the central canteen lawn while a strong police contingent, escorted by Rangers personnel, was present there to maintain law and order. The police asked the organisers to stop the proceedings which led to an altercation between them.

The situation turned tense when the police used force to round up defiant activists. The activists pelted police with stones in retaliation. The police claimed that two of their colleagues, Ayaz Lakhiar and Hoat Khan Lashari, were injured and windowpanes of a police mobile van were smashed.

Amid violence, student leaders gathered outside SU boys’ hostel in protest against the crackdown and demand release of their fellows.

Police and Rangers personnel were deployed outside the hostel to prevent further violence.

SU director of students’ affairs, hostel provost and others also talked to student leaders to persuade them to end their protest on the assurance that the held activists would be released.

The police, however, insisted on registering a case of anti-state activities and damage to police van against the defiant and violent activists. They had not agreed to release them till the filing of this report at about midnight.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2023