The incident occurred on Wednesday, when fifth-semester mechanical engineering students entered the classroom of the new batch around 10am.
“We were inviting junior students to come on stage and sing a song, do a dance and so on,” said a student who was present in the class.
He further added that after a few minutes, some activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talba (IJT) — the student wing of Jamat-e-Islami — from various departments entered the class and started arguing about ragging. “A few of them locked the door from outside and started beating all of us,” said another student who has stopped attending the university for fear of reprisal.
According to the university policy, students are not allowed to enter departments which they are not are not studying in. Students have to prove their identity at the entry points of all the departments.
Right after the incident, the alleged victims all went to meet and acting dean Dr Aqdas Naveed Malik. He suggested that the students avoid any activity that could harm fresh students and create animosity.
The university has been a hub for IJT activities and their involvement in minor clashes with other students’ organisations over farewell parties, cultural weeks and other festivals has become commonplace. IJT has strongly opposed immoral and immodest’ activities on campus, with the right to decide what is and is not ‘moral’ or ‘immodest’ being exclusive to the student group.
Just two years back, IJT members scuffled with the Seraiki Students Federation (SSF) for holding a cultural musical programme at the students’ café.
When the students were dispersing following the event, some of them started chanting slogans against assembled IJT students by shouting ‘go jamiat go’. This led to an exchange in which IJT members from the department AND some members of the SSF were injured. “Even some junior faculty members were jostled and pushed around,” said a teacher of the department. At the time, students boycotted classes and hold a protest before the administration.
On Thursday, the students protested outside the administration block and vowed to continue the boycott of classes till they “get justice and the people responsible for the mayhem are caught”.
Administration Director General Gulzar Khawaja received the application from the students and assured them that no political activity including pasting of posters and banners would not be allowed in the department.
Elsewhere on campus, about 100 IJT students holding posters saying ‘no to ragging and fooling’ appeared before the administration block and chanted slogans.
Furqan Khalil, the IJT nazim at IIUI, said the varsity has no space for such activities and that they are against the decorum and spirit of the institute.
The issue was also referred to the IIUI Students Disciplinary Committee, which decided to issue show-cause notices to both groups. An IIUI spokesperson told The Express Tribune that the issue was the concern for the varsity and justified action would be against those who are responsible.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2014.
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