Holi at KU amid message of interfaith harmony

Committee formed to probe incident

KARACHI:

Students will celebrate Holi at the football ground in the University of Karachi (KU) on Thursday (today), two days after an impromptu celebration was marred by violence.

"We have permission, and we will celebrate the festival on the campus with our friends from the Hindu community," said student Shahid Hussain.

He said they had planned to celebrate the festival in the coming week, but the recent incident had unsettled some of their fellow students. "We want to assure them that they are not alone," he said.

Meanwhile, the university administration has set up a committee to investigate the incident. A notification stated that a three-member committee had been constituted in this regard.

Justice (retd) Hassan Feroze who is the dean of the law department would be the convener, while a member of the syndicate and member of the provincial assembly Sadia Javed and assistant professor of computer science Mukesh Kumar were part of of the committee. The committee will submit its report to the vice chancellor.

Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi, who is the VC, said that the varsity believes in interfaith harmony. "It is the only university in the country that has mosques, a temple and a church. Our employees have already celebrated Holi on campus a day earlier," he said.

Incident

On Tuesday, a video was widely shared on social media in which a female student narrates that they were attacked by members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), which is the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The students contended that they were celebrating the spring festival in the Sindhi department, when they were interrupted and manhandled.

"At least seven to eight students attacked us," a student who was there told The Express Tribune. "They used abusive language and harassed the female Hindu students. They also made them delete videos from their phones," he said.

He said that a complaint against the attack had been submitted to the campus security advisor. The students said that staff members had also witnessed the attack.

Campus Security Advisor Dr Moiz Khan acknowledged that a student had submitted a document but they had not shared contact information. He said they were trying to contact the students.

The document, seen by The Express Tribune, lists the name of eleven students who say they were attacked and harassed.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2023.