BZU campus violence: Students given one week to respond to charges

18 students given till Monday to appear before inquiry committee.

MULTAN: An inquiry committee at the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) on Thursday issued show cause notices to more students.

The number of students issued show cause notices has now increased to 50. Of these, the 32 who have so far appeared before the committee have been told to submit their response to the charges filed against them in a week. 18 students, who failed to appear before the committee, have been given time until Monday.

The committee, headed by Dr Bashir Ahmed Chaudary, is investigating the clashes that took place in the BZUa few days ago.

At least three students had received severe injuries as a result of the clash between two students groups.

The brawl broke out in the college canteen over money. The two groups faced off inside the cafeteria, broke several chairs and damaged other college equipment.

Three students were severely injured after one of the students began to fire.

As a result, the academic board sentenced a Law department student, Imran Hajiana, to a one-year ban and fined him Rs50,000. Hasan Sardar, an undergraduate, was banned from the university for life.

The committee said that it had decided to probe the matter itself and not take it to the police.

It said that whenever police were involved the matter got politicised, adding that it wanted to put an end to violence on the campus.

The committee also recorded the statements of the injured students during Thursday’s meeting.

The BZU vice chancellor appointed the university’s director (student affairs) to ensure that a ban on all outsiders was implemented.

Earlier, Adnan Dogar group, a Peoples Student Federation (PSF) offshoot, on Thursday met the vice chancellor and complained against the entry of outsiders. It accused the other PSF faction, Adnan Kashmiri Group, of bringing armed outsiders in the university campus.

The PSF got divided into the Adnan Dogar and the Adnan Kashmiri group three months ago. Before the division, Adnan Dogar was the president of the PSF. Talking to The Express Tribune, several members of the Adnan Dogar group said that the PSF was deliberately divided by the college administration to weaken it. They accused Imran Warraich, the deputy director of student affairs at BZU, of undertaking the task.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2010.