MULTAN, Nov 8: Around 26 students of the Bahauddin Zakariya University were arrested as the fallout of the Friday night armed clash at a hostel between two rival students’ organizations.
Activists of People’s Students Federation and Islami Jamiat Tulaba had traded fire at the university’s Usman Hall hostel that landed several students at hospital, including four of them with serious injuries.
The university administration had a case registered with the Allapa police station through its security officer Sarfraz Khan on Saturday against 26 nominated and over 20 unidentified accused under sections 324, 365, 148 and 149 PPC. All the nominated accused had been arrested. Of them, 15 were said to be the activists of the PSF and 11 of the IJT.
The names of the arrested PSF activists are: Fakhar Dreshak, Hasan Mehmood, Sajid Pervez, Yasser Arif, Muhammad Tallat, Nadeem Abbas, Muhammad Asghar, Muhammad Ashraf, Sikander, Qaiser Nazeer, Jehangir Abbas, Khaliq, Muhammad Ibraheem, Imran, Sami and Muhammad Asif.
Those arrested who belonged to IJT are: Irfan Muhammad Amin, Azeem Yar, Muhammad Nauman, Muhammad Tahir, Amir Mehmood, Nawaz, Sarfraz, Mohsin, Shehzad Ahsan, Anjum and Muhammad Ali.
The FIR claimed that the activists of IJT first kidnapped a PSF activist, Muhammad Akbar, and later its activists attacked IJT activists to rescue their comrade.
Talking to newsmen on Saturday, IJT office-bearers Saifur Rehman Mujahid, Abdullah Naeem and Hasan Raza termed the FIR story concocted on the part of university administration.
They said the incident was not a sudden outbreak of clashes between the two organizations and alleged that the university administration had ‘engineered’ it.
They said a Jamiat worker was first attacked on Friday at the University Agriculture College by the PSF people, then in the evening they scuffled with IJT workers in a university bus and finally they (PSF activists) attacked Usman Hall.
They demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident.
On the other hand, the PSF office bearers said that some hidden forces were behind the clash as they wanted to divert the unrest prevailed among students on account of fee increase. They also demanded that the cases should be withdrawn immediately.
Meanwhile, BZU vice-chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry formed a four-member committee of academics to submit a report in three days on the incident. Faculty of Science and Agriculture Dean Dr GR Pasha has been appointed head of the probe committee.
A heavy police contingent accompanied with armour and troops remained present in the university throughout the day. DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal also visited the university to inspect the law and order situation.