LAHORE, Feb 2: Six more pro-democracy activists were assaulted by security guards of the Punjab College’s Branch 7 on Saturday afternoon allegedly at the behest of college principal and Caretaker Punjab Minister for Special Education Sohail Afzal.

When word of the incident spread, around 20 members of the Student Action Committee (SAC) along with a handful of lawyers, who were attending a protest at Nasser Bagh, went to protest outside the Muslim Town police station for what they claimed was police inaction, some of the protesters later told Dawn.

The Muslim Town Superintendent of Police, Rana Mansoorul Haq, convinced the protesters to go to the college where they would meet the administration along with police. When the protesters reached the college, they were forcibly detained and intimidated by teachers, the protesters alleged.

Saeda Diep, from the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies, Rahim Haque, a sociology instructor at the Punjab University, Umair Chaudry, a teaching assistant at FAST, Sheriyar, a software engineer, and Ahmed Ali, a driver, were beaten by security guards inside the college premises.

Later, the security guards also thrashed another activist, Usman Gill, who reached the scene to try to help his friends out and call the police.

Ms Diep alleged that even when the police arrived, the security guards continued beating Gill up and the policemen remained indifferent and did not intervene at all.

The incident followed the assault upon Rahim Haque on Friday, in which the security guard in question admitted beating Mr Haq to this reporter.

Diep told Dawn: “After Friday’s incident, we wanted to show them we were not afraid to return.” She said the activists went to the Punjab College at 12:30pm on Saturday to take photographs of where the college had allegedly encroached upon greenbelt and to resume distributing anti-government flyers among the students.

Security guards outside the campus intercepted them and told them that the principal, Sohail Afzal, would like to see them. They agreed and were taken inside the college to meet the caretaker provincial minister. Once there, Mr Afzal remonstrated with the activists and used abusive language before calling his security guards and asking them to “teach the activists a lesson”, Ms Diep narrated the sordid tale.

She said a dozen or so security guards thereupon set about beating the group, and that she herself was manhandled and thrown to the ground. Mr Haq’s nose was gushing blood, while Sheriyar fainted after 20 minutes of beating, Diep said. “At that point, I thought he was dead,” she added.

Security guards also thrashed Usman Gill, another activist who went to help his fellows. When police arrived 10 minutes after, they did nothing to stop the beating until Gill told them about his political connections, Diep said.

Sheriyar was later taken to the emergency of Sheikh Zayed Hospital where he was treated for his injuries, and when the activists were freed, they made their way to Muslim Town police station to lodge an FIR. The police, however, had not registered the case even two hours after the incident was reported to them.

Students and lawyers went to protest outside the police station at around 4pm where they met Muslim Town SP Rana Mansoorul Haq, who asked them to go to the college and meet with the security guards, while he himself would send police to the college.

Once they reached there, they were abused by the college teachers who accused them of being RAW (Indian secret agency Research and Analysis Wing) agents, traitors to their country, and “prostitutes for USAid” as DSP Rana Azeem of Muslim Town stood by, one of the protesters Halima Mansoor, also a student, told Dawn.

She said she was forcibly detained while the teachers there tried to search her belongings to check whether she was carrying a camera. The party was only released when the teachers of the Punjab College were satisfied she was not carrying a camera.

In a statement, the Punjab College administration later alleged that the activists had been trying to “enter the girls campus”, taking photographs of students and using abusive language against teachers. They said they were lodging an FIR against the activists for trespassing the college premises.

SP Rana later told Dawn that the police were awaiting the results of medical reports from the alleged victims and had not lodged any FIRs, as they were still considering the relative merits of the case.