GEO Pakistan
Varsities closed after riots hit Peshawar University
Updated at: 1358 PST, Saturday, March 20, 2010 PESHAWAR:

An FIR of the riots at Peshawar University on Friday and killing of a student has been registered at Thana Campus against nine students of the university, Geo News reported Saturday.According to the University management, a Coordination Committee is looking into the violent incidents in its meeting at Peshawar University.It should be mentioned the death of a student, who had sustained injuries in a clash between student organisations five days ago, triggered violence on the university campus, prompting the administration of all the universities to shut the institutions and vacate the hostels for an indefinite period.The students turned violent when the body of Adnan Abdul Qadir, who succumbed to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital after 100-hour coma, was brought to the Forensic Centre at Khyber Medical College for autopsy.The enraged students blocked the main Jamrud Road for sometime and then entered the university campus. They threw stones at different buildings, damaging properties. The protesting students entered the hostels of the NWFP University of Engineering & Technology, ransacked the rooms and put everything on fire there.The students then turned to the NWFP Agricultural University, where another bout of violence was witnessed. This continued till late Friday night. Police resorted to baton-charge and used teargas to disperse the protesting students. Five students were also arrested.The violence forced the administrations of the University of Peshawar, NWFP Engineering University, Islamia College University and Agricultural University to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the situation to take an appropriate decision in this regard.The meeting expressed shock over death of the student and announced closure of all the institutions at the campus and vacation of hostels for an indefinite period. All the hostels should be vacated by 12 p.m. today (Saturday), a notification issued after the meeting said.The management of the University of Engineering & Technology (UET) had already rusticated the six students of the institution nominated in the police report. The UET had also warned other students who were approaching the media and holding demonstrations of disciplinary action.The incident in which the student was injured took place on March 14. The activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) and members of Bannu Students Society (BSS) had clashed on that occasion. Five students including two from IJT and three from BSS sustained injuries. Among them was Adnan Abdul Qadir, who suffered a head injury and was shifted to LRH in a serious condition. He breathed his last on Friday and his death triggered violent protests.The BSS member said that they were playing music in their room in the tribal hostel of the UET, when some activists of the IJT attacked them. They claimed that the attackers beat them up. They demanded action against IJT and immediate arrest of the students nominated in the police report. The office-bearers of the IJT, on the other hand, demanded judicial inquiry into the incident. They claimed that they were not solely responsible for the grave incident.IJT Campus Nazim Shad Mohammad said that the issue was not a new one. He alleged that Fahd, a UET student, who was an illegal boarder of the Hostel-III, used to play laud music in his room. He said that some students of the hostel submitted a complaint with the administration of the university, which served notice on him, asking him to avoid playing loud music in the hostel.Shad Mohammad said: “This angered the said student, who called an IJT activist to his room and severely tortured him with the help of his other fellows on March 11. Three days later this student along with his friends and some activists of IJT came face to face. The two sides exchanged hot words and subsequently clashed with each other. This resulted in injuries to five students from both the sides.”