Student groups: College campus fighting continues in city

KARACHI:

A student was injured in a clash between two student organisations in Shipowners Government College just a day after another was killed at Saifee College.

Shipowners College is located in block R, North Nazimabad. The fight erupted between the Pakhtun Student Federation and Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba activists who took to each other with sticks and iron rods. Unidentified men opened fire and as a result 22-year-old Saad Rafiq was wounded.

Police said they fought over a cricket match; IJT activists wanted to play in a ground on the premises but the PkSF activists stopped them.

SHO Mohammad Nadir said that the injured student had no political affiliation. Arrests have yet to be made.

The IJT’s Sohaib Ahmed said that they had just shouted at each other over a misunderstanding but later the PkSF boys opened fire. PkSF’s Fida Hussain denied the allegations.

Saifee College 

After murder of a student at Saifee College on Monday, two separate FIRs were registered at the North Nazimabad police station on Tuesday, but it is not clear how many assailants were involved.

The police had a tough time on Monday night after it registered FIR No. 171/201 against unidentified persons on charges of rioting while armed with a deadly weapon. As this took place while 16 boys, including 10 IJT activists, were in custody, hundreds of IJT activists, parents and relatives surrounded the police station from 11 pm to well past midnight. They shouted against the police over and over again, demanding the students be released. The boys were picked up from the college, said North Nazimabad SHO Sajid Javed.

A father, Arshad Sheikh, told The Express Tribune that the police had demanded Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 from each of them to release their children. He said that his son was not even affiliated with the IJT. The SHO denied the allegation, adding that they had only asked for “personal bail” to release them.

Meanwhile, the IJT registered the second FIR, No 172/201, on charges of murder and attempt to murder for two of its activists. The funeral prayers for the slain Saifee student Hafiz Muhammad Arif were offered on Tuesday afternoon by residents, hundreds of IJT activists and the leadership of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangla Bazaar, Orangi Town No 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2012.