‘Territorial’ differences: Clash over wall-chalking claims student’s life

Over 50 students set off on an armed skirmish in Commercial Market.

RAWALPINDI:

A student lost his life and three others sustained bullet injuries in a clash between two student groups in a busiest commercial centre of Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Over 50 students armed with pistols and daggers set off at each other outside Government Postgraduate College for Boys, Satellite Town, resulting in an armed skirmish that lasted over 20 minutes, eyewitnesses said.

The student stabbed to dead in the clash was identified as Raees of Iqra University. The injured were identified as Rizwan and Mubashir, students of Swedish College, and Allah Dad, a tea-stall owner, who received a bullet in his neck.

Apart from the human loss, two cars were also damaged, along with numerous bullet marks on the neighbouring houses and shops.

Locals and eyewitnesses blamed the New Town police for delayed response, who, despite being warned of the possibility of the clash in advance, arrived at the scene an hour after the incident.

Government Postgraduate College for Boys’ Vice-Principal Professor Sadique Khan said the police were informed of a possible clash between the students groups after a number of outsider students began to assemble in front of the college. He insisted that had the police taken a swift action, the clash would have been averted and a life would have been saved.

A senior faculty member of the college, requesting anonymity, said that the two student groups had developed an enmity over the issue of wall chalking and a clash between the two was feared for the last many weeks. He said the newly formed Rawat Student Federation wanted to write its name on the college walls, which the Boxer Students group was opposing.

The professor said although the outsiders were barred from entering the college and the entry gates were closed, they managed to scale the college’s boundary wall and gathered in the playground. He said the students were forced out of the college by the staff, but soon after the students began to clash.

A case has been registered with the New Town police, who are collecting information from witnesses, students and the college staff to rounding up the names of pressure groups and the students involved in the incident.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rawal Town Matloob Ahmed corroborated the college professor’s version of the reasons that led to the incident.

When enquired, the SP said that no arrests have been made as yet, however, all those involved in the incident will be apprehended once the names of all the pressure groups and students involved have been rounded up.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2012.