About 40 to 50 Islami Jamiat Talaba activists beat three Shia PhD students after Friday prayers in the presence of Punjab University (PU) Vice Chancellor (PU) Prof Mujahid Kamran and security personnel. The beaten students are also members of the Students Action Committee (SAC) and Insaf Student Federation, which is the students wing of Tehreek-e-Insaf. The PU IJT media secretary said the students who had beaten the SAC members were not the IJT activists.
The SAC students were gathering after Friday prayers to protest in favour of the sacked judges when IJT activists, numbered in between 40 and 50, attacked them. Most of the SAC students, who were between 10 and 15 in number, managed to flee, but IJT activists managed to get hold of three SAC students. The SAC students were beaten to the extent that they were bleeding. They (IJT activists) raised anti-Shia slogans while beating them and the reason they gave for beating them was that they were “creating fuzz”.
Before the beating episode began, both IJT and SAC students had come out of the PU Central Mosque after the Friday prayers. The VC was present there when the scuffle broke out. In addition to the VC, there were between 15 to 20 security guards. The VC immediately left the place where the security guards stood by as mere spectators.
PU Registrar Dr Naeem Ahmed Khan said, “It is a sad incident and PU Estate Officer Muhammad Saleem has been suspended for being unable to keep things under control.”
The three students beaten were identified as Amir Jalal, Haroon Riaz and Sajjad Gul, all PhD students of biological sciences. The other SAC members later said that the event showed how the IJT controlled the university and could beat anyone even in the presence of the VC and security.
Jalal said, “It is the brazenness of the IJT activists, who indulged in hooliganism in the presence of the VC and security guards. SAC will launch a campaign against this vandalism.”