MULTAN, Feb 2: Five activists of the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) were arrested on Saturday for injuring four members of the People’s Students Federation (PSF) in a clash at the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) on Friday.

Also on Saturday, PSF activists staged a demonstration against the Friday’s incident.

Later, police evicted all students from the Abu Bakar Hostel of the university and then allowed only the registered students in.

IJT alleged the BZU administration was backing the PSF.

According to a press release issued by BZU on Friday, IJT activists thrashed student Muhammad Umer who was sitting at the university canteen with his sister. In the meantime, a group of PSF members reached there and exchanged words with the IJT activists. Four PSF activists were injured in the ensuing clash.

The press release said police were called in to control the situation. The university also banned the entry of all those involved in the incident to the hostel.

IJT BZU Nazim Luqman Nazir told Dawn on phone that IJT activists had gathered for a weekly lesson of the Holy Quran at the university canteen when PSF activists, accompanied by a few outsiders, attacked them and opened fire in the air. He said the BZU administration had lodged a case against him and seven other IJT activists with the Alpa police.

PSF BZU President Malik Mushahid Ali told a press conference on Friday that IJT activists found some students sitting with girls during a round of the university and thrashed them for their ‘un-Islamic act’.

He said the IJT activists also thrashed a girl and her brother for sitting together. Some PSF activists tried to stop them, but they beat them too, he added.