LAHORE, April 10: Some students reportedly belonging to the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) thrashed a boy and a girl of the Punjab University’s English Language and Literature Department for sitting together on the campus, on Tuesday. The IJT, however, denied the charges.

Witnesses, including some teachers, told Dawn that Jamiat activists first thrashed the part-I student before pushing him into a nearby watercourse.

“The boy was bleeding profusely when the assailants were hitting him with fists and kicks,” said a teacher who did not want to be identified.

The girl (a boarder) was reportedly beaten up in the evening near the university hostels.

Some English Department students said before giving them the trashing, the IJT activists had contacted the two by phone, asking them to mend their ways and refrain from promoting their anti-Islamic conduct.

PU registrar Prof Dr Naeem Khan said the administration had received a written application from the ‘victims’. He said a fact-finding committee had been constituted and asked to do the needful within two days. He resolved that the administration would not let any element damage the academic peace, and a strict action would be taken against the accused.

Prof Khan said the IJT activists had taken a lead from the Jamia Hafsa case and were trying to create anarchy. The registrar said punitive steps taken against IJT activists by the university administration in the past had left them desperate. “They want to regain their control on the campus.”

Some students told Dawn that the two victims as well as some other students of the department had been receiving threatening calls for the last few days.

It is learnt that IJT activists also thrashed some Psychology Department students for mixing with female fellows during the concluding ceremony of an international conference organised by the department a few days ago.

They also thrashed some students of the Institute of Business Administration and a boy and a girl of the Hailey College of Commerce during the last one week.

When contacted, an IJT spokesman said Jamiat activists had only warned a boy and a girl of the Psychology Department for ‘obscene gestures’ and denied having any involvement in the thrashing of English Department students. He said some university students and the administration were in the habit of putting the blame of such cases on the IJT.

He said the IJT activists interfered in ‘extreme cases’ and were more involved in academic activities. He said the IJT was now planning to hold the annual book fair on the campus.