Troubling news: Rangers take five KU employees into custody

Varsity spokesperson confirmed the arrest but Rangers have yet to confirm

KARACHI: Rangers conducted a raid on Friday at the University of Karachi (KU) and arrested five of its employees.

The five employees taken into custody included audit officer Naveed Siddiqui, accounts clerk Zohaib, accounts officer Zeeshan Amin, accounts officer Rehan and librarian Shamshad Mehmood. The employees were later shifted to an undisclosed location for further questioning.

The varsity's spokesperson confirmed the arrests, saying that the raid was conducted by the Rangers at the administration block.

The spokesperson said that the university was closed on Friday as rehearsals for the convocation to be held today were ongoing when the Rangers entered the administration block at around 12:30pm and took the employees into custody.

A university employee who witnessed the raid told The Express Tribune that he thought that the paramilitary personnel had come for a meeting regarding the security situation, as a day earlier Sindh Rangers director-general Major-General Bilal Akbar also visited the campus.

"We came to know about the arrests after the Rangers left the varsity," he said. Though no official statement has been issued by the Rangers regarding the raid and arrests, there are unconfirmed reports that the university employees were detained in connection with the murder of a KU student in 2007. Despite repeated attempts, the Rangers spokesperson was not available for comments and the paramilitary force had not issued a statement until Friday evening.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2016.