HRCP shocked at police brutality

Serious concern expressed over police brutality against students of Quaid-i-Azam Medical College.

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious concern over police brutality against students of Quaid-i-Azam Medical College in Bahawalpur who were protesting against electricity outages.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the HRCP has demanded that all authorities, including police officials, who authorised the use of force be proceeded against.

The HRCP said, “As if police connivance in the killing of two young brothers in Sialkot was not enough to tarnish its image, it has been followed by a brutal attack on students, including girls, of Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, graphic images of which have been carried by the media”.

The students had been protesting to demand exemption for their college and its hostels from power outages. The college administration called in police which fired teargas shells and beat them up with batons. More than 80 students were taken into custody and at least nine have been sent to jail.

The HRCP said it was “dismayed over the apparently disproportionate and uncalled for use of force against the students and demands that the police personnel responsible for the violence and the officials who authorised resort to violence must be proceeded against and the use of force against protesting students must be discontinued forthwith.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2010.