LAHORE: The Punjab University (PU) administration on Friday served the first instalment of show-cause notices on 32 students of the varsity allegedly involved in recent clashes between Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) and the Pukhtun Council.

Students Affairs Director and disciplinary committee Secretary Shahid Mehmood Gull sent the notices with a detailed charge-sheet to residential addresses of the students as well as prisons where they were being held after an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) sent them on physical and judicial remand.

An ATC handed over 13 students to police on a seven-day physical remand and 183 others to jail on a 14-day judicial remand for their alleged involvement in clashes in the PU on Monday and Tuesday. However, not all of the 196 arrested students belonged to the PU.

The show-cause notices available with Dawn mentioned that the students had been charged with disrupting the honour, prestige and dignity of the university during the clashes that took place on Monday and Tuesday among the activists of IJT and Pukhtun Council. Other charges included creating chaos on campus, setting ablaze and damaging university installments at Electrical Engineering Department of the varsity, and creating a sense of fear among girl students.

The students who were served with notices in the lock-ups were enrolled in Department of Gender Studies, Institute of Communication Studies, Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, Department of Political Science, Institute of Education and Research, Law College, Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre, Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Department of Physics, Institute of Business Administration, Department of Space Science, Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Institute of Geology and Hailey College of Commerce to name a few.

The students were directed to submit their written defence within three days through their heads of departments concerned. The disciplinary committee would also visit the suspended students in prisons to record their statements.

Since the clashes erupted on Monday, more than 225 students had been arrested by police from hostels and four cases under terrorism charges registered against them at Muslim Town police station.

The students were charged with destroying university property and damaging vehicles, including two police mobiles and five motorcycles, during the clashes that erupted between the IJT and Pakhtun as well as Baloch student unions on Monday.

The PU spokesman said they were completing all legal formalities to take action against the miscreants. He said the students were being given an opportunity to prove their innocence and cases were quashed against those who were found not guilty by the disciplinary committee.

Shahid Gull told Dawn that this was the first instalment of show-cause notices sent to students. They had received data of the 196 students arrested, but officials will visit the lock-ups and confirm how many of the arrested were PU students, and then send the second instalment of notices.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2018