Students, teachers rally at Punjab University

Call Nato strike ‘unprovoked aggression’, express anger at the West.

LAHORE:

Thousands of Punjab University students, staff and teachers participated in a rally on Wednesday condemning the Nato attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The protesters gathered at the Institute of Business Administration in the morning and then marched behind Vice Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran though the campus. The enthusiastic participants shouted slogans and carried banners and placards condemning the “barbaric” attack, backing the armed forces and paying tribute to the fallen soldiers.

Addressing the rally, Prof Kamran said the “unprovoked attack” should be considered an act of war. He said he had never seen the nation so angry.

He said the blood of the soldiers killed in the attack “by the US in disguise of Nato” would not go in vain.

The vice chancellor said that the teachers, students and employees of the university fully backed Pakistan’s armed forces and shared the grief of the soldiers’ families.

He welcomed the government’s response to the attack  the suspension of the Nato supply line, eviction of US forces from Shamsi airbase, and boycott of the Bonn conference  as an appropriate reflection of public sentiment and urged the government to reject a reconciliation.

Prof Kamran told the protesters that knowledge was the headspring of power and that Pakistanis must focus on education and research.

He said that a secret cabal of international bankers was trying to take over the world and establish a global government.

“The Pakistani people and the government should accept this reality and prepare themselves in every field,” he said.

The student protesters expressed anger at the West. “I have come to record my protest against the Nato strikes. Students have to play a role when the country’s sovereignty is challenged,” said Muhstaq Awan.

“We came here of our own initiative. Teachers didn’t ask us to come,” said Muhammad Arshad, a student at the Institute of Communication Studies.

The university administration did not allow some of the protesters affiliated with the Islami Jamiat Talaba to raise IJT flags at the rally, saying they did not want it to have the stamp of any particular group but to represent the university in general.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2011.