Tense calm at QAU after violent clashes

Three students arrested while many on the run; pistol recovered from hostel

ISLAMABAD: Police have arrested three students of the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) and recovered a pistol from them, and are on the lookout for two dozen others who were involved in violent clashes in the university hostels on Saturday.

Secretariat police have booked 15 Sindhi and 11 Baloch students who were involved in Saturday’s clashes. According to the complaint lodged by the university administration, chairman of the Mehran Council Fahad Ahmad had resorted to hate speech and instigated students during a general body meeting of the Sindhi students. Sindhi students attacked and besieged Baloch students at hostel No 8.



The complaint said that chairmen of both the Mehran Council and Baloch Council used hate speech and instigated their members against each other, and also brought people from outside the campus for the fight.

The complaint said that while the students used clubs and hockey sticks, Shafqat Mangrew of the Mehran Council shot fires from a pistol. Mangrew was later arrested and helped the police in recovering the pistol from the rooftop of the hostel.

The administration had to vacate the boys’ hostels and suspend academic activities for an indefinite period. QAU Resident Officer Dr Sohail Nadeem said the administration would hold a meeting on Monday to take stock of the situation and decide measures to prevent

such clashes in future.

Secretariat SHO Hakim Khan said three students had been arrested so far and their two-day physical remand had been obtained, while the rest were still at large. He said most of the students nominated in the FIR were injured in the clashes and were taken to hospitals for treatment. “We will not spare them and arrest them soon,” the SHO said. He said police contingents remained deployed at the campus on Sunday. Police said around 20 Sindhi and 10 Baloch students had been injured in the clashes.

A university administration officer said that most of the students involved in the clashes fled from the hospitals after receiving first aid out of fear of arrest.



Meanwhile, the university administration has gotten all the boys’ hostels vacated. “Almost all the boys’ hostels have been vacated. The process of vacating would complete by Sunday evening,” Nadeem said. The resident officer said that a Sindhi and Baloch student had argued over a petty issue during a trip to Abbottabad a month ago and later involved their respective councils in the matter. Both the groups had quarrelled on April 22 when the two students returned from the trip. Over the last month, he said the administration had taken several disciplinary and reconciliatory measures to resolve the issue but to no avail. He said most of the students at the university were fed up with these frequent disturbances.

He said except one student who had fractured his leg while trying to jump from the first floor and flee, all others had received minor injuries and had been discharged from hospitals.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2017.