KARACHI, Oct 12: Twelve people, including a reporter and cameraman of a TV news channel, were wounded on Sunday when rival student groups clashed at an educational institution, police and witnesses said.
They said reporter Osama Chaudhry and cameraman Farhan Soomro of the Aaj TV channel received bullet wounds at around 2.35pm during an exchange of gunfire between two student groups at the Swedish Technical College near Quaidabad.
The witnesses said that a clash took place between the students belonging to the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba and the Pakhtun Students Federation, at around 10.30am at the institute, where an entry test for new admissions was being conducted. They said the rival students took positions and traded heavy fire for hours, turning the college’s compound into a battlefield.
The witnesses said the candidates and students remained confined to the classrooms for hours as the police did not reach the spot on time and the situation worsened with the rivals continuously exchanging heavy gunfire.
Witnesses said that a heavy contingent of police reached the spot and fired several teargas shells before they scaled the institute’s boundary wall.
The area SHO, however, said the situation was brought under control immediately after the students’ clash, and the entry test was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.
No one was arrested and no firearm was seized on the college premises.
Allegations and counter-allegations were levelled by both student organizations, and the police registered separate cases against unnamed workers of the IJT and the PSF on behalf of the state.
The IJT said that 10 of its workers received bullet wounds when the rival students opened fire on them.
Killed over family feud
A 24-year-old man was shot dead allegedly by the father and brother of the woman he wanted to marry.
The victim, Sikander, son of Juma Khan Bozdar, a labourer, was killed near his house at Gul Goth, a shantytown in Sohrab Goth.
The Sohrab Goth police said four passers-by, including a woman and her five-year-old daughter, were wounded when the attackers opened fire on the victim.
The victim’s brother, Gul Khan, lodged a murder case against Abdul Nabi and his son Munir.
The police said the families of the victim and suspects hailed from Dadu and had a dispute over the victim’s proposal for the daughter of suspect Abdul Nabi.
Watchman shot dead
A 55-year-old watchman of a plot of land was shot dead by an unknown attacker in Gulshan-i-Maymar. The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the victim was identified as Shahnawaz, son of Allah Rakhio, hailing from Moro.
Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the victim received three bullets in his upper torso from a point-blank range as the bullets pierced his body.
The police said the victim lived in a hut on the plot. They said that two groups had a dispute over the possession of the plot.
No case had been registered till late in the night as the police were still trying to locate the victim’s family and the owner of the plot.
Meanwhile, the body of a 65-year-old man was found near Gutter Baghicha in Pak Colony.
The victim, who had been missing since the previous night, was identified by his family members at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the body was shifted for an autopsy. Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal department told Dawn that Tauseef Ahmed, alias Laddan, received a fatal wound to the head by a blunt object.
The victim was a resident of Asif Colony, a shantytown in Pak Colony.
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