Extra curricular activities: KU staffers held for possession of weapons

KARACHI:

Two out of the four residents who were detained by the Rangers at the Karachi University (KU) for possession of weapons were handed over to the police on Thursday.

The armed men identified as Sunil, Arshad, Umar and Farmoosh, enrolled in KU’s evening programme, were emerging from the campus on two motorcycles at around 1:30am on Wednesday when they were stopped for snap checking. The Rangers took two 9mm pistols off them and sent them to the wing’s headquarters inside the campus.

Sources said that Sunil works as a sanitary worker on campus and is reportedly affiliated with a political party, while Umar is the son of a university employee and works in its accounts section. An FIR was registered at Mobina Town police station, nominating Sunil in a kidnapping and murder attempt of a university student on March 9.

According to the Mobina Town SHO Khushnood Javed, Arshad and Farmoosh were handed over to the police with the minor charge of driving motorcycles without registration papers. “We, however, will check their past records for involvement in any criminal activity,” said SHO Javed, adding that they would be released otherwise.

Sources within the paramilitary force believe the other two are implicated in “crimes of serious nature” and were still being investigated.

The pressure is mounting on the university for release of Sunil and Umar. During a protest at the administration block, a group of employees forcefully shut the academic and non-academic activities at the campus against the arrests.

The KU officers’ association president, Muhammad Tahir Khan, said that the Rangers should have informed the administration as soon as they detained a staffer.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2012.