ISLAMABAD: Three Baloch students of Preston University were allegedly targeted on the basis of ethnicity by fellow students and severely beaten up on the university campus in Sector H-8 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Area police have not registered a case on the complaint filed by the Baloch students due to a pending medical report. The police also claimed that the students are exaggerating the incident.
Civil society representatives and youth activists staged a protest demanding justice for the injured students on Sunday evening, claiming the university administration appeared to be trying to settle the issue without police involvement.
Students Fakharuz Zaman, Khalid and Mehran were having lunch at the private university’s cafeteria around 2:30pm on Saturday when they claimed four students, whom they did not know personally, attacked them.
“They walked up to us and said ‘what are you saying to each other in Balochi?’” said Khalid, who was spending his first day on campus on Saturday after getting enrolled earlier in the day. “One of them smashed my head with a knuckleduster.”
The students alleged they were beaten with a knuckleduster, bottles and knives but no one in the busy cafeteria came to help them. The Baloch students also claimed the attackers abused them in Punjabi and Pashtu, alleging that the attack might have been ethnically-motivated.
However, police officials dismissed these claims and said the incident was a college brawl.
Police confirmed a fight occurred inside the Preston University’s cafeteria, but an Industrial Area duty officer who had gone to the scene after the incident was reported to Rescue 15 said it was a small fight in which one student received “minor injuries.”
The officer claimed the Baloch students were making a mountain out of a molehill.
On the other hand, sources said that a medico-legal officer at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences who examined the injured students suggested the injuries could amount to an attempted murder charge.
The Industrial Area Police Station, which is also responsible for Sector H-8, confirmed that the students filed a complaint, but no First Information Report (FIR) was registered.
Industrial Area Station House Officer Hakim Khan said police did not go through with the FIR because they had not received the medical report yet.
“Every citizen has a right to get a case registered and we will facilitate the students if they have a valid claim,” Khan said. “We do not move ahead instantly with a case when students are involved because it might ruin their careers.”
He said the medical report is expected on Monday and further action can only be taken after police gets the report.
The university’s campus has CCTV cameras installed in the cafeteria and body scanners at its entrance, but the police could not confirm how the attacking students were able to get dangerous metal objects inside. University staff apparently intervened only after the students had been thrashed.
The Baloch students also said they were treated rudely by the university’s security in-charge, after the incident. But later on Saturday, after the duty officer had also allegedly requested the students to settle the matter with the other party, the students said the administration reached out to them.
“The administration requested that we visit the university on Monday and said they will listen to our concerns about the incident,” said Zaman, who has been enrolled in Preston University’s graduate programme for a month.
Khalid and Fakharuz Zaman both got stitches on their foreheads and were visibly shaken as they stood outside the National Press Club on Sunday, where around two dozen activists from the Pakistan Youth Alliance staged a protest against the university administration.
The demonstrators shouted slogans demanding that Baloch students be treated with respect and the university administration be held accountable for the incident.
University officials were not available for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2014.
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