More students caught as police widen dragnet
University students have been protesting against plans to hold on-campus examinations. PHOTO: FILE
Friends and families of the students involved in the University of Central Punjab (UCP) protest and violence case alleged that police have arrested five more students including Zubair Siddiqui, the main suspect wanted in the case.
However, Investigations Officer Ghulam Abbass said while talking to The Express Tribune that the police had not arrested the students. He said they had come to know that Siddiqui was on bail till February 10. He commented that he could not say that the suspect was not wanted in another case by the police of some other police station.
The other students reported to have been arrested included Sanaullah Aman, Salman Sikandar, Haris Hasan and Ali Ashraf Malik.
Siddiqui’s organisation Progressive Students Collective (PSC) alleged that the other four students had nothing to do with the protest. None of them was nominated in the case.
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Police raided a house in Raza Block, Iqbal Town early on Thursday without women officials. The family alleged that they manhandled the women present in the house and students. The students were beaten up and despite presenting bail orders, Siddiqui was taken into custody by police and shifted to an unidentified location, they claimed. Haider Butt, a fellow of the arrested students wrote on social media, “There is still no information about the whereabouts of my friends, my comrades, my family. They are for sure being tortured in the dark dungeons. I feel like my body is in the cage. I can’t breathe with this pain. But such tactics would not deter us to speak….”
The PSC demanded the immediate release of the students and announced a protest against the action.
A day earlier, a court had handed over at least 37 students to police on three-day physical remand in the case. Lahore police had registered a case against at least 94 nominated students and hundreds of unidentified persons under sections 452, 506b, 148, 149, 427, 342, 290, 291, 440, 436, 269 and 270 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and section 16 of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law.
The police alleged in the first information report (FIR) that the students had attacked the university and damaged its property.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2021.