KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted bail to six teenage suspects held for allegedly harassing female students in Karachi University.

Police claimed to have arrested the suspects, all said to be the children of KU employees, and booked them for allegedly harassing female students on the campus.

On Friday, the investigating officer produced them before the judicial magistrate (East) to seek their physical remand for interrogation and investigation.

However, the suspects moved an application, through their defence counsel, seeking grant of post-arrest bail.

The defence counsel opposed the IO’s request for police remand stating that they were underage and the case against them was without any merits.

He asked the judge to grant them post-arrest bail.

After hearing arguments from the state prosecutor, the judge granted bail to the suspects against a surety of Rs20,000 each.

The judge turned down the IO’s request for remand of the suspects, who were told to cooperate with the police during the investigation of the case.

On Thursday, the varsity administration had handed over the suspects, said to be residents of KU’s staff town, to the Mobina Town police after some students of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), which is located on the KU premises, complained on social media of an alleged harassment and intimidation incident on the campus.

The matter surfaced on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, when an IBA student, Syed Shaheer Ali, shared on Facebook that he was harassed in KU while he was returning after dropping one of the female students at the IBA Girls’ Hostel.

He alleged that around 10 young men, aged between 10 to 16 years, surrounded him on four motorcycles and harassed him.

Mr Ali said he dropped the female student at the Girls’ Hostel at around 11.30pm and then he along with a female friend headed towards Maskan, when 10 people on four motorcycles suddenly appeared and surrounded his car, shouting to get out of the vehicle.

The male student said it was pitch dark at KU, with complete silence and “we were stuck around the bushes. I tried my best to hold my nerves and pressed the accelerator to full as I tried to run away”, he wrote on social media.

“As we ran and reached near IBA Boys Hostel, they again appeared and surrounded us forcing me to stop the car. That’s when they came to the car’s window banging and screaming Larki ko Bahar nikaal, Gaari Roukk, Bahar aa... [take the girl out, stop the car, get off].”

However, Ali said he managed to escape and informed the security guards on the Maskan gate of the varsity.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020