Concocted crime

Groups in civil society must back the students taking a brave stand against IJT's criminal activities.

The brutal ‘punishment’ meted out by goons associated with the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba (IJT) to students at a hostel on campus who were beaten with sticks and rods, leaving seven badly injured, follows a pattern we have seen before. The vicious attack followed a demonstration staged by students — who belonged mainly to the philosophy department — and some teachers to protest against IJT activities intended to prevent male and female students from sitting together. The IJT has engaged in similar, violent ‘morality’ campaigns many times before. Indeed, it had also attempted to break up the demonstration directed against it, which had been organised by students opposed to IJT tactics and ideology.

It is unfortunate that despite the invasion of a hostel and an assault on its residents, university authorities and police have failed to take any action. As the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan pointed out in a press statement, this tendency to watch silently and do nothing can only encourage further acts of a similar nature. We have seen far too many of these in the past and they seem to be continuing. More proactive action is needed to put a stop to such intimidation, which must be eradicated from campuses. We would expect the Punjab government to intervene in the matter immediately. Ignoring it amounts to an act of negligence which puts other students and teachers at terrible risk.

What is encouraging is that a stand has been taken against the IJT. Reports also speak of pamphlets going up against the rule of clerics. This would never have happened in the 1980s, when the IJT, backed by its political mentors, began its reign of terror at educational institutions across the country. Other groups in civil society must back the students taking a brave stand against the group and do everything possible to ensure the law of the land is not violated by any organisation able to muster up the power to do so through their acts of brutality and readiness to use force to drive home their message.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2011.