PESHAWAR: Five students were injured when police baton-charged the participants of a sit-in at University of Peshawar (UoP) here on Thursday.
The students, under the banner of Mutahidda Tulaba Mahaz, were protesting against increase in tuition and hostel fees. About 30 students including leaders of all the unions and federations were arrested, according to eyewitness.
“Students were holding a peaceful protest when all of a sudden police attacked and started arresting and beating them,” said Afaaq Ilyas, who witnessed the students being beaten and get arrested.
About 30 arrested for agitating against hike in fee
The MTM in a press conference had blamed the UoP administration for increasing the tuition, hostel and semester fees by 350 per cent during the last five years forcing the students to stage protest even last year for 16 days. The previous provincial government had intervened and promised to resolve the issue but it was resolved only temporarily as this year the UoP administration once again wants to go for a 10 per cent increase in fee per semester.
Ali Imran, media and protocol officer of UoP, said that the fee was not increased in the previous academic year. However, the syndicate of the university had approved 10 per cent increase in every semester and the administration wanted to implement the decision.
“In 2017, between November 28 and December 12 such a protest was held and now once again students held a protest but fee hike was not an arbitrary decision as it was approved by the syndicate,” said Mr Imran.
He said it was unfortunate that many students, who were used as human shield, were injured during police action against the protestors. He blamed the leaders of the protesters for staging such a protest.
Mr Imran termed the sit-in a reaction to university administration’s action in July against illegal occupants of the rooms in hostels. He said that university administration evicted illegal occupants, including leaders of different unions and societies, from about 300 rooms in the hostels. The rooms were vacated but those leaders kept pressuring the administration, he added.
“This protest is a reaction to eviction of these leaders from the hostels. Those, who led the protest, were outsiders and used the students as human shield,” Mr Imran. He added that university had zero tolerance for such political and pressure groups.
He did not give exact figure of the arrested students but said that about 28 students got injured however all of them had minor injuries.
As the news of use of force against protesting students on the campus spread, leaders of many political parties issued statements to condemn the UoP administration for it.
ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan termed use of force against the students of university as ‘barbarism’. He urged the government to hold talks with the protesters to resolve the valid problems faced by the students.
ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain in his statement said that such incidents reminded him of martial law days when student unions were banned and students were dealt with violent force.
He urged the PTI government to provide relief to the students of such public sector universities and hailing from poor families. The students facing fee hike and hostel issues should be provided with relief and those, who got injured, should be treated freely by the government, he added.
Jumaat-i-Islami secretary general Abdul Wasih also condemned use of force against students by the university administration. He said that the university had imposed Section144 to control activities of students in the name of security. He added that the university administration should stop such activities and try to resolve the problems of students.
PPP MPA Nighat Orakzai through an application has requested police to lodge an FIR against chief minister , governor and IGP for using force against the innocent protesting students. She said that six students got injured and 23 were arrested when police baton-charged them.
Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018