PESHAWAR: Academic and administrative activities at the University of Peshawar remained suspended on Friday as employees went on a strike against a mob attack on the administration block and the police’s failure to act against it.

The call for strike was given by the university’s teaching and non-teaching employees from the platform of the Joint Action Committee.

The administration has launched a crackdown on the rickshaws, taxicabs and pushcarts operating on campus without the approval of the university administration, according to spokesman for the university Ali Imran.

He told Dawn that the university appeared to be a busy marketplace due to the presence of rickshaws, cabs and pushcarts in large numbers.

VC formally complains to IGP against ‘ineffective’ campus police

“We have chalked out a traffic plan, which also includes changes to some transport routes and preventing such vehicles plying the campus without permission,” he said.

The spokesman saidthatthe security guards had impounded around 30 rickshaws, which were owned by the people from villages near the university.

He added that around 300 people on Thursday forcefully entered the university, ransacked the offices in the administration block, and took away the seized rickshaws.

A senior staff member of the administration told Dawn that hooligans remained in the university for three hours and delivered speeches against the administration.

He said that staff members repeatedly called the campus police for their protection but the latter didn’t act against the attackers, who remained on campus for around hours.

Vice-chancellor Qazi Mohammad Naeem wrote a letter to the inspector general of police to lodge a complaint about the “ineffectiveness of campus police.”

He pointed out that the police remained inefficient and non-responsive despite repeated calls by the university administration after the mob attack on offices.

The VC saidthatthe attackers should be charged with terrorism.

“Despite the presence of a significant number of police personnel on campus, including the main gates, the attackers were able to freely enter, roam and cause substantial damages. The attack continued for around three hours during which the repeated calls for police assistance from the director of administration went unanswered,” he said.

The VC saidthatthe “miserable failure” of the campus police to effectively respond to the emergency or protect the university’s employees and property was a grave matter that demanded immediate attention.

He also demanded that the commandant of the campus police be placed under the direct supervision of the IGP and all police personnel currently deployed on campus for more than three years be posted out.

Peshawar University Teachers Association president Dr Uzair told Dawn that the strike by staff members would continue until the arrest of the people named in the FIR.

He also urged the provincial police chief to immediately order the transfer of 364 police personnel, deployed on the campus many years ago, over their failure to act against mobsters despite repeated calls by staff members.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2024