VC visits Police Office, thanks IGP for restoring peace to campus
Zubair Qureshi
The administration of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has decided to suspend all educational activities after clashes between different student groups a day earlier. In a notification, the university administration announced to shut the university for an indefinite period. According to the notification, the university administration has directed the students to vacate hostels including boys and girls on an immediate basis. Vice Chancellor of the QAU, Dr Shaista Sohail along with Registrar of the university Dr Raja Qaisar on Wednesday called on Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan and thanked the Islamabad police for maintaining law and order on the campus. Earlier on Monday, the QAU campus turned into a battleground after students belonging to two groups clashed with one another by using batons and sticks, which left several students injured.
The student groups of Baloch, Pakhtun, Punjabi and other ethnic representatives, it seems are constantly at loggerheads with one another and peace and order seem to evade the university which once used to be the highest and the most prestigious seat of learning. These groups attacked one another with sticks, stones and other harmful tools.
The university administration after failing to control the situation called for police help. By the time police could reach the scene, violence escalated and the students indulged in violent attacks on one another. Police after a search operation cleared the hostels and restored order.
“In the backdrop of a precarious law-and-order situation amid violent clashes between the student groups, the QAU is closed till further orders. All residents of the hostels (boys and girls) are hereby directed to vacate the hostels immediately,” said the notification.
This is not the first time that such violence took place at a top-ranking university. In the past, the university has also seen armed clashes and violence on campus.
According to an official of the QAU, the violent groups were led by expelled students of the university who had been indicted in various FIRs for creating the law-and-order and resorting to violence.
