MULTAN: A court on Tuesday granted bail to eight Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) students accused of torturing a fellow on campus.

Alpa police lodged an FIR against the suspects on the complaint of Khalil Ahmed, a resident of Dera Bugti, after a video clip of the incident went viral and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the incident.

Khalil, a student of MSc psychology, was tortured by the suspects with clubs and iron rods on Sept 7.

Rana Junaid Rashid, Amjad Tabassam, Mahar Navid, Faisal Chandia, Waqas Gujjar, Abdul Rehman Lodhi, Ramzan Harraj and Usman Gabol filed a bail petition through their counsel and stated that the allegations against them are baseless and in fact the activists of the Baloch Student Council tortured the workers of the Peoples Student Organization the same day.

They said an application was submitted with police for registration of a case. They alleged that the university administration was using its influence to cover up its inefficiency and supporting the Baloch students.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Jahangir Ashraf while accepting the pre-arrest bail request of the accused directed each of them to furnish the bail bond of Rs50,000.

Sources said a group of teachers who had developed differences with Vice Chancellor Dr Tahir Amin was behind the repeated clashes. They said before proceeding on leave three weeks ago, the VC had directed the university treasurer to take action against some members of the administrative group by recovering outstanding amounts from them.

The purpose of the clash, they alleged, was to pressure the VC to stop him from taking action against the administration members.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2018