KARACHI, April 5: At least two students were injured in two incidents of clashes between two student groups at the University of Karachi on Wednesday. Sources on the campus said that the groups used stones and sticks against each other after an argument took place between a “former” student and a group of activists of a student organization at the Department of Political Science at around 12.10pm.
It was learnt that workers of the latter student organization charged Jaffer, said to be an old student of KU and an activist of a rival student organization, that he was an outsider and as such should leave at once, as the campus was not a place for unconcerned ones.
Offended by the remarks and gestures of his opponents, Jaffer contacted his well-wishers and supporters, which resulted in two rounds of clashes between both the said student organizations.
In the first exchange of hostilities at around 12.30 pm, Ashfaq, was injured due to stoning, while in the follow-up event, Qasim was injured near the varsity’s cafeteria.
An official of the university said two injured students, each belonging to the Islami Jamiat Talaba and the Peoples’ Students Federation, were referred to outside hospitals.
The IJT’s plea was that outsiders should be checked on the campus at all cost, he added.
When contacted, the students’ adviser and campus security adviser, Dr Mohammad Ahmad Qadri, said the leaders of IJT and PSF met him separately after the incidents and said that the fuss was the result of some ‘misunderstanding’ and they would ensure that such things did not happen in future.
According to him, the injured, Ashfaq, was a student of the Education department, while Qasim was from the Persian department of the university.
To a question, he said no one was above the law on the campus and it was advisable that students having grievances against any quarter should contact the university administration instead of indulging in any skirmishes.
In the meantime, a spokesman for the All Pakistan Mohajir Students’ Organization (APMSO) in a press statement said the activists of the PSF and IJT under a plan repeatedly attacked its workers at the S M Arts College, D J Science College and Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology (Baba-i-Urdu campus) on Wednesday.
A number of APMSO workers, including a unit in-charge of the Urdu University Arts Campus, Saif, shot in the abdomen, were injured due to the attacks, added the spokesman. He demanded arrest of the culprits.
The Rabita Committee of the MQM has also condemned the reported attacks on APMSO activists, saying party workers were busy in academic activities.
It said terrorists attacked using sticks, iron chains and arms at different institutions, which resulted in injuries to Hassan Tufail and Asif, Furqan, Abid and Saif.