Student power: IJT, PSF activists clash at FUUAST

Examinations and other academic activities come to a standstill.

KARACHI:

Freshmen at the Abdul Haq campus of Federal Urdu University of Arts Science and Technology (FUUAST) were driven into a state of panic on Wednesday when two student groups clashed on campus and police had to resort to aerial firing to disperse them.

The bedlam caused the cancellation of ongoing private BA exams, apart from other academic activities. The clash broke out between Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba (IJT) and the Pakistan Peoples Party’s student wing, the Peoples Students Federation (PSF) when IJT activists allegedly attacked their PSF counterparts. However, the IJT nazim of the campus, Salman Khan, told The Express Tribune that his group was saving freshmen from being “ragged” by members of the PSF. “They (PSF activists) entered classrooms and started misbehaving with students,” claimed Khan. “The clash erupted when our activists intervened.”

The PSF leader at the FUUAST campus, Kamran Khan, rejected IJT’s claim and instead put the blame on people who had arrived in large numbers to participate in the election of the IJT’s new campus nazim. “We do not believe in ragging and the practice is non-existent on our campus anyway. But IJT activists, while displaying a show of force, attacked our activists for no reason.”

The few rangers deployed there tried to control the situation but failed, prompting the administration to call in the police. At least five PSF activists and three IJT activists were injured in the clash and the police later arrested five PSF students outside campus and locked them up at the Eidgah police station in Saddar. Police released them later after both groups reached a compromise. No FIR was registered.

The injured men included Ehtisham, Ikhlaq and Atiq of the IJT and Mehboob Alam, Qasim, Arshad, Zulfiqar and Atif Alam of the PSF.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2012.