Students, police clash over wall-chalking

LAHORE - Heavy contingent of police Tuesday arrested dozens of Islamia College Civil Lines students including IJT Islamia College Nazim Muhammad Saboor shortly after violent clashes between the police and the students over a petty issue of wall chalking. Some students, a college professor and a policeman got multiple injuries in the clashes. The armed policemen launched aggressive crackdown by entering the college premises and arrested several 'innocent students besides Jamiat leaders and those who scuffled with the police. The situation in the area remained tense for more than four hours where the students played hide and seek with the police by throwing stones and running away in and outside the college. The Islamia College students alleged the police misused its power and arrested scores of students while they were taking exams. The policemen also subjected them to torture and thrashed them on the road. The IJT said they did walk chalking to welcome the new comers in the college but it never became a dispute as this year due to the attitude of police. They said the police smashed the college gate and entered the hostel premises where they tortured the students, broke public property and removed valuable belongings of the students. Hostel Warden Prof Abdur Rasheed and another professor Hamid who tried to calm down the situation were also injured. The arrested students include MSc students Rizwan, Asad and Naeem along with other students. The police again resorted to violence on students around 2:30 pm when they launched a protest. Science College students also staged a protest demonstration to express resentment against the incident. In a statement, PU IJT Nazim Qaiser Sharif condemned the incident and demanded the release of arrested students. On the other hand the police claimed that the students had tortured some of them and snatched official guns from their possession when they stopped them from wall chalking. Eyewitnesses said the clash took place when CDGL officials were erasing wall chalking from the newly erected wall outside the SSP Operations Office. A policeman deputed to guard the CDG officials exchanged hot words with the students when they tired to intervene. Both the students and the policeman later scuffled over the issue. Meanwhile some police personnel deputed at the SSP Operations Office also reached there and scuffled with the students. Lower Mall, Outfall Road and Islamia College premises turned into battlefields during the clash, the witnesses said, adding some furious students also pelted the police with stones while the law enforcement agencies retaliated by firing tear gas shells to disperse the students and baton-charged them badly. The clashes took place at three separate places - in front of the SSP Office, at Lower Mall and in the premises of college, the witnesses said. The SP security called additional police force from nearby police stations and police lines on finding strong resistance by the Islamia College students. The policemen bundled the students into official vans and took them to Lower Mall, Anarkali, Islampura and other nearby police stations and locked them behind the bars. The traffic remained suspended on Lower Mall and The Mall for hours due to clashes between the police and the students. Later a large number of students gathered on the road and burnt tyres to register their agitation against the students arrests. They chanted slogans against the police and demanded of the high ups to release innocent students immediately. Superintendent Police (SP) City Operations Rana Jabbar said Jamiat leaders of the Islamia College tortured a policeman deputed to guard the CDG officials and snatched his official gun. They pelted the police with stones when police reached the spot on the complaint of the CDG officials. On this, the police chased the violators and arrested more than two-dozen Jamiat workers and students from the college. Some of them were taken into custody during search operation, the SP said, adding an FIR has been registered against four Jamiat leaders including Nazim of the student union Muhammad Saboor and scores of unidentified assailants Under section 353,148,149 and 186 of PPC, he said.