Celebration soured: IJT, PU teachers clash leaves several injured

LAHORE:

Several guards, teachers and police officials were injured in a scuffle with members of the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba (IJT) following a dispute over a flag hoisting ceremony at PU Hostel Number 1 held in connection with Independence Day celebrations on Friday. 

Members of the PU Academic Staff Association later held a press conference at the PU Executive Club where they requested the chief minister to take notice of IJT’s “terrorism”.

They said the university had organised a flag hoisting ceremony in front of the VC’s office in the morning. However, after Friday prayers, some IJT members and outsiders gathered to organise another ceremony. Hall Council Chairman Dr Akhtar and some teachers tried to stop them but the IJT members misbehaved with them. Teachers at the press conference said some staff members had been protecting the IJT members.

They said the IJT members attacked a PU security van and attacked Additional Registrar II Malik Muhammad Zaheer. They said Zaheer was taken to a hospital where he received seven stitches for a head wound. They said Resident Officer 1 Prof Dr Sajid Rashid and Institute of Quality, Technology Management’s Assistant Prof Dr Muhammad Shafiq and two security guards Pervaiz and Abdul Malik were also injured. Muslim Town SHO Nasir Gill said he was injured during the scuffle and was taken to Jinnah Hospital.

Separately, at a ceremony in front of the vice chancellor’s office, VC Mujahid Kamran stressed the need for focusing on education just as the government had focussed on the country’s nuclear programme.

Educational institutions raise the national flag high

Flag-hoisting ceremonies were held at the Punjab University (PU), the Government College University (GCU), the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), the Forman Christian College and the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Lahore Campus.

The national flag was hoisted at the PU Law College building; sweets, badges, caps and shirts bearing insignia of national flag were distributed among the participants.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2015.