Campus politics: Sindh University bus set on fire in protest over suspensions

Masked men kidnap vehicle’s driver and cleaner and throw them from a moving car.

HYDERABAD:

A continuing protest against the suspension of their colleagues took an ugly turn on Tuesday when a group of men set a university bus on fire and made good their escape.

The university rusticated 18 students last week, cancelling their hostel allotments and banning them from campus for five years. Three former students were also banned from entering the university premises.

The incident took place in the afternoon on Jamshoro Road, near Aga Khan Hospital, where the men forced the students to disembark before setting the vehicle ablaze. The bus’s driver and cleaner were also kidnapped for a short time and were robbed of their cash and mobile phones, said the university’s transport officer, Sajjad Shah. “We kept on calling the two for over an hour,” he told The Express Tribune. “Blindfolded, they were thrown out of a moving vehicle in Phuleli.”

Quoting driver Muhammad Jumman, the transport officer claimed that the troublemakers were wearing masks and, therefore, they could not be identified.

Shah confirmed that the outbreak in violence was linked to the rustication of some students. “We have seen them protesting, forcing the students to boycott classes and hampering the movement of university buses,” he said.

No report of the incident was lodged with the police till the filing of this report. The university authorities were, however, in a meeting with the SSP. An FIR is likely to be lodged after the meeting, said Sajjad Shah.

During the protests which ensued, seven students were arrested and six were nominated in an FIR registered at Jamshoro police station.

Nationalist leaders, including the chief of the Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party, Dr Qadir Magsi, have put their weight behind the students. “The enemies of Sindh have tried from time to time to stifle student politics,” said a statement issued by Magsi after a meeting with rusticated students on Sunday. “They have converted the educational institutions of Sindh into jails.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2011.