Students demanding basic facilities thrashed by police

The students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Nawabshah were protesting for amenities as basic as drinking water

HYDERABAD: At least seven students were admitted to the Peoples University Medical Hospital after police subjected the students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Nawabshah, who were protesting for facilities in the hostels, to teargas shelling and baton charge, leaving over two dozen of them injured, including one in critical condition. The incident occurred on Nawabshah-Sakrand road on Wednesday. Some students were also arrested.

Hundreds of students of the varsity boycotted classes and held a sit-in demonstration, asking for a range of facilities in the hostels including clean drinking water.

"The protest continued for four hours but no university official approached us to listen to our demands," deplored Farhan Brohi and other students while talking to the local media. "And suddenly police battalions descended upon us, firing teargas shells and beating us with batons."

Brohi, Saim Moro, Arsalan Malik and other students claimed that the injured students were not even shifted to the hospital. "We ourselves took them to the hospitals in private vehicles and public transport," said Malik. The protests later resumed in the university, forcing the administration to reportedly accept 13 out of 14 demands of the protesters.

Students continue protest against varsity harassment

The Taluka SHO Malik Riaz and CIA Centre's In Charge Mobeen Parehar led the police onslaught. The police said they wanted to clear the road. Zulfiqar Laghari and Rao Noman, both students at the varsity, said that they were demanding water, food, electric supply, decrease in fee and other facilities for the hostels.

"We hoped that the university administration would send someone to talk to us but they instead sent the police to beat the students on the road," Laghari bemoaned. The students later demanded the removal of vice-chancellor Tayyaba Zarif and registrar Najamuddin Soho. They appealed to all university students in the province to support them by holding protests.

The varsity's spokesman Kashir Noorani said the students were not assaulted in the university's premises. He claimed that the police acted on their own accord. Local leaders from Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and the nationalist parties condemned the police action and demand action against the police personnel

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2019.