On varsity premises: Students manhandled as guards try to avoid clash

Security chief says some teachers complained about boys creating nuisance in the garden.

HYDERABAD: Amid Holi celebrations, a bunch of students at the Sindh University (SU) were manhandled by private security guards after some teachers complained they were creating nuisance on the premises.

According to associate professor and philosophy department chairperson Amar Sindhu, a couple of students came to her and complained that they have been roughed up. One of the boys had his shirt torn, she said.

Initially under the impression that the students were stopped from celebrating Holi, Sindhu called up the varsity’s security chief Ghulam Nabi Kaka. “He told me that they [guards] received a complaint from some teachers of the arts faculty that a few boys are creating nuisance in the faculty’s garden,” she told The Express Tribune. “He added that the guards went there to control the situation.”



According to Sindhu, Kaka assured her that the university never stops students from celebrating religious festivities and that the SU students and faculty celebrate Holi every year for several days.

She also confirmed that the Holi celebrations restored after the brief fight and guards’ intervention. The security in-charge told The Express Tribune that they did not intend to arrest any student. “We acted to prevent the fight from escalating,” he said. “The university has a history of issues heating up into long-lasting clashes among students.”

According to Kaka, the guards did not beat up any student and only pushed them apart from each other to prevent further altercation.

Photographs shared by some students on Facebook show a boy seated in the security guards’ van. The caption claims that it was a police van. However, Kaka refuted by saying the vehicle belonged to their private security. “We didn’t arrest anyone.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2015.