MULTAN, Jan 10: Four students of the Bahauddin Zakariya University were injured in a clash among activists of two rival organizations on the campus on Saturday.

It was learnt that activists of the Peoples Students Organization (PSO) and the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) had quarrelled in the morning at Bank Chowk of the university.

Later, some 20 activists of the PSO, who were armed with firearms and clubs, surprised the IJT activists at the departments of political science and international relations.

Eyewitnesses said that some of the assailants kept on firing in the air while others started thrashing the IJT activists.

They said some teachers, who were present on the spot, avoided to intervene until four IJT activists were injured.

Hasnain Raza (IR department), Shahbaz Wattoo (Pakistan Studies department), Aftab Niazi and Raja Imran Saleem (Pharmacy department) were taken to the Nishtar Hospital where their condition was stated to be stable.

The injured students identified the assailants as Sohail Bajwa, Manzoor, Malik Saeed, Raja Yasser, Rana Saif and their some 20 accomplices.

They alleged that the BZU administration was patronizing activists of their rival organization.

They claimed that the situation had been tense between the two organizations for the last some days as the PSF people passed some taunting remarks against them and other IJT activists when they were attending a session of 'Daras-i-Quran' at the central canteen on the campus.

A heavy police contingent reached the university after the clash. The law-enforcers reportedly raided the Abu Bakr Hall hostel of the university and taken into custody PSF activists Hasnain, Fawaad Gurchani and Goga.

Meanwhile, the PSF on Saturday held the IJT responsible for the clash.

In a statement, the BZU unit of the PSF alleged that the IJT activists used to bring outsider on the campus to harass them.

This was the second clash among the two rival organizations on the BZU campus within two months.

In November last year, five students were injured while around 26 were taken into custody by police following a clash on the campus.