BAHAWALPUR: Several students of the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) on Thursday blocked the city’s busy DIG Chowk for hours by parking university buses to protest against the institute administration.

The agitation was in continuation of the students’ earlier protest on March 18 on IUB’s Baghdadul Jadeed Campus over the car parking issue. The students had then clashed with the security guards and blocked the campus main gate to prevent exit of the vice chancellor.

Their demands included action against some university officials responsible for alleged torture of students on March 18 and reduction in fees. They alleged that the students were tortured at the behest of university officials against whom the VC had not taken any action.

On Thursday, the protesters assembled at DIG Chowk and suspended the university bus service shuttling between the campuses. They said the security guards beat up Muhammad Tayyab Javed and Junaid Jajja on March 18 and the VC simply refused to lend an ear to their grievance.

They also demanded reduction in the university fee claiming that the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, had already slashed the dues.

The students continued their protest for more than four hours during which the motorists faced inconvenience as the traffic was diverted to other arteries. They later moved to University Road and reached the old Abbasia Campus where they staged a sit-in.

The university PR office in a press release alleged that the few expelled students involved in criminal activities had taken law in their hands on March 18 and Thursday. They harassed the students in university buses and forced them to get down.

The IUB had not enhanced fees and the students were just concocting a pretext for protest. The protesters’ demand regarding parking also was not genuine because the parking lot had been reserved for unidentified vehicles for the safety and security of the students, teachers and employees of the university.

The press release, expressing the university administration’s helplessness, added that a handful of students blackmailed the administration and had made 18,000 university students hostage.

CONFERENCE: Archaeology expert Prof Dr Rafique Moghul has claimed that the great Cholistan desert now called Hakra desert had been in fact Hakra river flowing about four to five thousand years ago.

At a heritage cultural conference, Rafiq Moghul, professor Emeritus in Bostan University, USA, said the northern part of the former Hakra river was now Cholistan which extended up to Sindh. He said the signs of old-age population of Cholistan had been found and there was an urgent need to preserve the utensils and other artifacts discovered here.

Prof Dr Shahid Hassan Rizvi, chairman Department of History of IUB, claimed in his paper that Hakra civilisation was discovered from Cholistan where the ruins of over 400 populated areas were located. This area was the hub of trade, he added.

FIRE: Weed and grass over 12 acres were burnt in a fire at the National Park Lal Sohanra about 35 kilometres from here.

District Forest Officer (Park) Qazi Khalid confirmed the breakout of fire due to a short-circuit of live electric wires passing overhead.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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