“One of them smashed my head with a knuckleduster.” says a student. PHOTO: FILE
Meanwhile, the Industrial Area police have not registered a case on the complaint filed by the Baloch students due to a pending medical report. The police also claimed that the students are exaggerating the incident.
Civil society representatives and youth activists staged a protest demanding justice for the injured students on Sunday evening, claiming the university administration appeared to be trying to settle the issue without police involvement.
Students Fakharuz Zaman, Khalid and Mehran were having lunch at the private university’s cafeteria around 2:30pm on Saturday when they claimed four students, whom they did not know personally, attacked them.
“They walked up to us and said ‘what are you saying to each other in Balochi?’” said Khalid, who was spending his first day on campus on Saturday after getting enrolled earlier in the day. “One of them smashed my head with a knuckleduster.”
The students alleged they were beaten with a knuckleduster, bottles and knives but no one in the busy cafeteria came to help them. The Baloch students also claimed the attackers abused them in Punjabi and Pashtu, alleging that the attack might have been ethnically-motivated.
However, police officials dismissed these claims and said the incident was a college brawl.
Police confirmed a fight occurred inside the Preston University’s cafeteria, but an Industrial Area duty officer who had gone to the scene after the incident was reported to Rescue 15 said it was a small fight in which one student received “minor injuries.”
The officer claimed the Baloch students were making a mountain out of a molehill.
On the other hand, sources said that a medico-legal officer at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences who examined the injured students suggested the injuries could amount to an attempted murder charge.
The Industrial Area Police Station, which is also responsible for Sector H-8, confirmed that the students filed a complaint, but no First Information Report (FIR) was registered.
Industrial Area Station House Officer Hakim Khan said police did not go through with the FIR because they had not received the medical report yet.
“Every citizen has a right to get a case registered and we will facilitate the students if they have a valid claim,” Khan said. “We do not move ahead instantly with a case when students are involved because it might ruin their careers.”
He said the medical report is expected on Monday and further action can only be taken after police gets the report.
The university’s campus has CCTV cameras installed in the cafeteria and body scanners at its entrance, but the police could not confirm how the attacking students were able to get dangerous metal objects inside. University staff apparently intervened only after the students had been thrashed.
The Baloch students also said they were treated rudely by the university’s security in-charge, after the incident. But later on Saturday, after the duty officer had also allegedly requested the students to settle the matter with the other party, the students said the administration reached out to them.
“The administration requested that we visit the university on Monday and said they will listen to our concerns about the incident,” said Zaman, who has been enrolled in Preston University’s graduate programme for a month.
Khalid and Fakharuz Zaman both got stitches on their foreheads and were visibly shaken as they stood outside the National Press Club on Sunday, where around two dozen activists from the Pakistan Youth Alliance staged a protest against the university administration.
The demonstrators shouted slogans demanding that Baloch students be treated with respect and the university administration be held accountable for the incident.
University officials were not available for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2014.
COMMENTS (60)
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Very sad incident if true but why doesn't ET cover the terrible atrocities inflicted upon "settlers" in Balochistan with same relish?
Where are the self righteous Pakistanis now who were lecturing India about suspending Kashmiri students, fix your own backyard before pointing fingers at others.
@Unknown: Is the security and intelligence so poor that anyone can incite violence!
I am Baloch and I feel very comfortable speaking in Balochi to fellow students, faculty, co-workers, and anyone else. This problem is not related to language, I can attest to that. Pakistan is a multicultural, multilingual country and its part of our pride and identity. I love all my fellow Pakistanis, regardless of their language or ethnicity.
Poor journalism by ET. Ascertain facts beforehand.
Tribune website is backed up by Indian agencies.
Now, Indian news channels will be full of this news and all the news anchors and journalist will be busy discussing this issue whole day exactly the same way we have seen Pakistani media doing on Meerut University issue.!!!!
Do you really think Indian media will pay any heed on this issue !!!!!
First, lets extend the same courtesy that our western neighbor offered to Kashmiri students - We open our heart and our universities for all our Baloch students brothers.
And let's see how many blogs, editorials and chat shows we would see about the incident on ET and Pakistani national television. Any guesses?
Great job, ET. Your irresponsible article is being used by Hindus to abuse Pukhtoons, Punjabis, Baloch, and all other Pakistanis. What more can we expect from you? Are you really a Pakistani paper? Ascertain the truth beforehand. Until Baloch groups and major parties don't give any statement, you should not jump to conclusions.
In India, Kashmiris were kicked out of their universities for cheering for Pakistan, and there was no doubt about the abuse and curses they suffered, even damage to their property by Hindu mobs. You can't equate that with this argument between students, with no government or university involvement.
Pakistan is very good about preventing such incidents, in fact major cities are always closed down in case of any incidents of community unrest to restore normalcy. In India, Muslims are always blamed even if Hindus attack them. There is a big difference between the two.
@umer why condemn india on it? The case filed by the policemen have been taken back even when under constitution seditious activities r nt allowed..india is union of many states with their own official state language,religion etc. india is very sensitive when when it comes to something that threatens union of india.specially kashmir because religious fundamental separatist raise anti india slogans so when those students come other states and support other country a country which we believe supports separatist no sane country would tolerate it.does China tolerate Dalai Lama? America tolerate snowmen, Julian Asaange?but mind u we follow legal process unlike ur country who use target killing and brutal methods. but even so state gvt took cases back. Secondly 60 day suspension because of upcoming election,Nobody wants law and order situation and loose election failing to control it. As far as what happened to Baloch I don't believe they where supporting india nor were they raising anti pak slogans had it been the case I would have supported pakistan if it has sedition laws. But here those students where just speaking their own mother tongue ..so u just comparing apples with oranges.
@ khan u just proved me right. @ "SOMETHING IS FISHY!!!" Yes dear whenever Pakistan is wrong its always "fishy, american-Israel-india conspiracy. Pakistan is most innocent country in the world and the whole world is conspiring to destroy Pakistan. Like the world has no other work. Reminds me of ostrich buried its head in sand...u don't want to admit realities and faults in your country much less improve it. Instead u want to suppress and blackout ur own backyard while conveniently point fingers and ridicule other countries who's systems are ten times better than u, just to make u feel better. U were the same country that said we can't handle dissent be it anti national..."so what! handle it,types" ,but guess what u can't even handle national activities! Speaking ones own mother tongue is a crime now and gets u targeted! what moral right do u have to point fingers at others then? And now that u have no defences, so it's a "conspiracy". Wow. hypocrisy at its best.
@Umer
The difference that ria is trying to point out is that you don't have an uproar in India against treatment of the Baloch student's, because we believe in letting a country take care of its issues in matters such as these.
Interesting!!!!.
This is 5th time, I am noticing, that any occurrence of event in INDIA (e.g. rapes and Kashmiri students) are closely followed by similar event in PAKISTAN.
SOMETHING IS FISHY!!!!
Now where's the morals and principles of pakistan? The moment u are shown the mirror it's either conspiracy,propoganda ,fake news or indian hand..grow up look into ur own mess before u advise india..classic difference Kashmiris were suspended, and the FIR which was registered was taken back.. Unlike in ur country modes of punishment is gunning,beating,kidnapping,suicide bombing or maiming them eg.salman taser,Christian minister, setting fire art of living etc.. I would anyway prefer to be suspended than be human barbeque..and that too for what? Not even doing anti national slogan activity but speaking their own mothertongue. Shame.
thanks for the great idea guys, form now on me and my friends will trash students who speaks kashmiri in our collage. and ET please publish my comment.
@Pakistani: @Mirza: Yeah we are your brother but brother knows the name of his brother if we were ur brother then u could know the name of us we are not Balochis we are Baloch dear....i know for what u call us ur brother.Thanks brother for ur brotherhood,,
@Ali Abbasi:
The two are not the same. Baluchis were not clapping for and supporting India sitting in the cafeteria. If they did they would have disappeared by now.
@Pakistani: bhai go and meet those students and asked them what happened and for your info no one in this country believes anything a baloch says so how can you say we are brothers . you are saying that those students are lying and on other hand you call yourselves brothers to us
This is totally false and baseless news. Bolochies are our brothers and they are freely living everywhere in Punjab and other provinces.
@Mirza: There was no outcry against that. People actually appreciated it.
Police should be investigated properly .Balochi is our brothers .
Living in Punjab I cant accept true. There are more Blochs in Punjab than in Balochistan but never heard of any hatered incident like that. I know Bloch students in Lahore who hate Punjab the most but no one says them anything. I know Brahamdagh Bugti in sadiq Public school in Bahawalpur used to snatch lunch from class mates. He always showed sardar attitude. Baloch sardars come in Punjab with illegal weapons but no one stops them. Yes Balochis are treated with discriminately and discrimination is that they are considered above law. But you will always blame Punjabis. Keep it up this is in fashion but not the truth.
Same thing is happening with Punjabi students in universities of Sindh specially in Sindh university or Mehran university Jamshoro. Punjabi students are also targeted on the basis of ethnicity not only by the students but also some teachers are involved in this. when ever any Punjabi student got abused on the basis of ethnicity and reported the administration don't take any notice. Then who is responsible for that Balochies or Sindhies.
Shame on Media for exploiting it, investigation haven't gone through and in the hurry of reporting a judgement has been passed by Media on ethnicity. Who knows what the fight was about, its a university people fight on all tiny stuff.
disappointed . fake reporting
I wonder about the factual basis for this event. Being a Pukhtoon, I highly doubt anyone, Punjabi or Pukhtoon, would abuse anyone for their language in Pakistan. We have so many dialects here, that it is almost impossible to know exactly which language someone is speaking.
The fact that this event comes right after the abuse of Kashmiris in Indian Universities is very suspicious. I hope we get the truth out soon, as I know this is not something the Pakistan government would allow.
@Mirza: no no keep wasting money ... and let people die .. becz dancing and superman consumes are more important .... what dying poor children can give u ? pathetic thinking ..
@ria Not a single Pakistani here is trying to justify what happened. That is the difference between us and the Indian readers who troll ET.
and pakis shedding crocodile tears for Kashmiri terrorists.
wait for the news from Balochistan.
unless one wants to get some media attention and a little sympathy after being beaten up; it stands as the lamest excuse.
Hilarious. When ET criticizes Indian Universities for alleged mistreatment of Kashmiris, everybody supports them. Soon as something critical comes up in our own institutions, ET becomes an "Indian paper".
Oh come on it was my friend's varsity and she almost witnessed the situation, it was nothing about ethnicity and just about normal student clashes, the reason Balochi was mentioned only because thy didn't understood what was talked about them..irrespective of ethnicity the injured students must be listened, provided proper treatment their concerns should be answered and justice be served!
And Indians stop whining its nothing about ethnicity!
"پاکستان نے قومی پرچم لہرانے کاارجنٹائن کاورلڈرکارڈ توڑدیا" Also broke the Argentine's enforced disappearances record
I have studied and taught in private universities not so long ago but never ever imagined something like this happening...incidently this all is happening after the Kasmiri students incident in UP. Incidently this is happening to Balochs who in recent times have been getting a bit of a soft corner from our indian neighbours...fishy!
Did Balochi students raise slogans like "India Zindabad"? Did they support Indian cricketers? Did the Univ VC take action on the offenders? All they did was speak in their own language. I thought Pakistan was full of religious intolerance. They seem to have intolerance of their own coreligious population as well.
Y r we shouting on kashmiris students being kicked from university in India when we in our country are yet discriminating btw baloch, panjabi, pushtoon, sindhi. Had the the attack been the other way round, balochs beating panjabis in Quetta, the electronic media would made it a huge issue.... Supreme court would have taken a notice of the assault. the issue isn't how badly r the students injured, the thing is y were they attacked and when is the administration expelling the culprits from university. check out the injured students and raise voice for these as well.... link text
Indian agents are so active in Pakistan that they can stage such a drama to hide their country men's behavior against Kashmiries. May Allah save Pakistan from these Indian agents.
i love the brawls happening in pakistani universities...... i mean first that day on valentine's day.... now this.... no surprise i heard of a news saying pakistani broke record of indian martial artist....LOLMAXXXXXXXXXXXX :D
pakistan : treat kashmiris well india:- mind ur own business AFTER the incident..... india : ahem! ahem! pakistan we must mind our own business.........LOL :D :D.......pakistan y u get trolled everytime on ur own newspaper....ET plz save them from this humiliation.... love u loads though...:D
Indian conspiracy. Should be properly investigated.
Typical Punjabi 'theekedar of Pakistan' mentality.
Pakistan should free our Dravdian Baloch brothers, 1971 will repeat again, India will come back to save her ethnic peoples like in Bangladesh.
We deny this incident.
Time for another 1971 style operation to free Balochistan.
Preston? Talk about copying names.
? who were those student
First year prank ?
These Bloch students should be thankful that they are lucky to be alive. They could have been among the missing Bloch youths. The smaller provinces must give up their culture and languages in Pakistan. Remember the outcry against the Sindh cultural celebrations?
Some times I wonder am I reading a Pakistani news paper or an Indian news paper..
"On the other hand, sources said that a medico-legal officer at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences who examined the injured students suggested the injuries could amount to an attempted murder charge" Not a soul says a word for poor Baloch students while there was uproar when 3 Kashmiri students were sent home for rioting in Meerut. Are Baloch and Sindhis not looked down upon?
hehe..... typical pakistan...and they teaching us how to behave with kashmiris....LOL