Holding education hostage
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that IJT has destroyed PU’s repute by spearheading Kalashnikov culture at universities.
Twenty students were arrested, which is believed to be a reason behind the violent reactions to the raid. PHOTO: SHAHBAZ MALIK/EXPRESS
From the December 2 incident in Lahore where Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) members torched a Punjab University (PU) bus and attacked police and female students, one thing is evident — the university administration has lost all control of the IJT, which has spared no one from its hooliganism. Why else would a university administration have to call in the police in the first place to evacuate a boys’ hostel?
The IJT has been defying the administration’s decision to convert hostel number 16, an IJT stronghold, to a girls’ hostel. While most of it had been evacuated over the last week, police had to be called on December 2 to force the remaining IJT members out of the rooms, where police later recovered bottles of alcohol, bhang and bullets. Just a few days ago, a law department teacher was beaten up by IJT members for stopping them from having free meals at the canteen. Twenty students were arrested, which is believed to be a reason behind the violent reactions to the raid. It must be recalled that in September, an al Qaeda suspect was arrested from a PU hostel. The university vice-chancellor had admitted that there were armed and illegal occupants in the hostels, who had extortion lists and clear links to militants. The hostel clean-up operation that was ordered never happened.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the IJT has destroyed the PU’s repute by spearheading the Kalashnikov culture at universities. Issuing government press releases condemning the incident and telling parents to keep their children away from the IJT will not ameliorate the situation. The one simple solution to the problem is to immediately ban all political student organisations from universities and implement a regular check on boarders and visitors, making them show their student IDs or day passes every time they enter the premises, banning overnight visitors at the hostels and ordering the university to submit a monthly audit of those genuinely in need of rooms at hostels.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2013.
The IJT has been defying the administration’s decision to convert hostel number 16, an IJT stronghold, to a girls’ hostel. While most of it had been evacuated over the last week, police had to be called on December 2 to force the remaining IJT members out of the rooms, where police later recovered bottles of alcohol, bhang and bullets. Just a few days ago, a law department teacher was beaten up by IJT members for stopping them from having free meals at the canteen. Twenty students were arrested, which is believed to be a reason behind the violent reactions to the raid. It must be recalled that in September, an al Qaeda suspect was arrested from a PU hostel. The university vice-chancellor had admitted that there were armed and illegal occupants in the hostels, who had extortion lists and clear links to militants. The hostel clean-up operation that was ordered never happened.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the IJT has destroyed the PU’s repute by spearheading the Kalashnikov culture at universities. Issuing government press releases condemning the incident and telling parents to keep their children away from the IJT will not ameliorate the situation. The one simple solution to the problem is to immediately ban all political student organisations from universities and implement a regular check on boarders and visitors, making them show their student IDs or day passes every time they enter the premises, banning overnight visitors at the hostels and ordering the university to submit a monthly audit of those genuinely in need of rooms at hostels.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2013.