LAHORE, Dec 2: A face-off between the Punjab University administration and the Islami Jamiat Tulaba turned ugly on Monday as the latter’s activists resorted to violent protest, causing massive traffic jams for several hours on Lahore’s major roads as well as damaging and burning of public transport.
The students had taken to streets following a police clampdown on a hostel of the university early on Monday in a bid to get it vacated from male students.
The activists blocked roads on different locations in the city by switching off engines of buses and trucks in the middle of roads.
In the evening, a Lahore Transport Company bus was torched on Wahdat Road, adjacent to the PU new campus.
Police arrested 21 IJT activists and carried out raids for the arrest of two Jamiat activists, Suhail and Hafiz Mohammad, on charges of torching a bus till the filing of this report.
Police registered 11 cases against IJT activists on charges of blocking roads, damaging public property, resorting to violence and misbehaving with teachers.
The leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly lambasted police and traffic administration for failing to check a handful of students, who kept the city choked for about 10 hours. He called for suspension of top officials and maintaining law and order at all costs.
Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan said the government had decided to show zero tolerance against elements who had created the law and order situation in educational institutions.
He said the government had been monitoring the situation in PU for the past six weeks and eventually decided to pick “linchpins” and register cases against them under the anti-terrorism act.
Stating that the government could not allow anybody to create a state within state, the minister said all student organisations were illegal.The altercation between the Punjab University administration and the IJT activists had been simmering over hostel accommodation for a couple of months and the latter were refusing to vacate it for girl students.
PU IJT nazim Abdul Muqeet said the university was not constructing new hostels for an ever-increasing number of students and instead forcing the Law College’s male students to vacate the hostel for girl students.
It is learnt police had started an operation against IJT activists on Sunday evening to arrest seven accused nominated for harassing and locking up two Law College teachers two days ago. They were booked under the anti-terrorism act.
Police raided Hostel no 16 at around 6:45am and got it vacated and handed it over to the varsity administration. But the students reoccupied the hostel. Police arrested 14 students.
Meanwhile, all seven accused nominated in the FIR by Law College teacher Naeemullah were arrested from different locations in the city as well as from other cities.
The IJT activists protested against the arrests and spread in different parts of the city as police did not let them hold a mass protest. They snatched keys of vehicles and parked buses and trucks in the middle of roads, leading to massive blockades.
The protesters torched a bus on Wahdat Road.
The IJT nazim said the PU administration was distorting facts about the varsity’s internal issue of students’ accommodation in hostels. He alleged that scores of varsity students were missing and their parents were visiting different police stations, but in vain.
He said the Jamiat would continue its protest and added that the PU vice chancellor and the provincial education minister would be held responsible for any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the PU Hall Council, Prof Dr Mohammad Akhter, told a news conference that the students residing in Hostel no 16 were given notices to vacate it so that girl students could be accommodated. At present the girls were sleeping in corridors and common rooms.
On the other hand, he said, the boys hostels had a capacity to accommodate the students, residing in the said hostel.
During the hostel checking, Prof Akhter said, three bottles of liquor, contrabands, a bullet and cards were found in IJT nazim’s room. He said the university had now shifted 150 girl students to Hostel no 16.
He said the university students who had been booked would be tried by the Discipline Committee and rusticated.
DIG Operations Rana Abdul Jabbar said police arrested 21 IJT activists and were raiding for more arrests, including two accused in Lahore as well as in Sialkot, Narowal and Sargodha.He said police had registered 11 cases on different charges, including the anti-terrorism act.
Mr Jabbar said police had increased patrolling on the Canal Road running between the PU new campus and Hostel area.