Students were congregating outside UMT to protest against Punjab Police which baton-charged students. Lahore president for Progressive Students Collective (PSC) Zubair Siddiqui, who was leading the protest, was arrested by police from the University of Management and Technology (UMT).
The PSC later tweeted that Zubair and some other students were censoriously injured and have been taken to ICU (intensive care unit) after they were allegedly baton-charged by Lahore police.
However, police had denied reports of baton-charge. Saddar Division SP (Operations) Hafeezur Rehman Bugti told media that police “have not tortured anyone (students), and will not ever torture”.
He stated that no first information report (FIR) or case has been listed and police have asked the protesting students to hold negotiations with the university administration.
A spokesperson for UMT said that the university was “bound to follow directions given by the HEC (Higher Education Commission)”. He said that the university had held online exams in the past and would continue to follow government and HEC guidelines related to exams and classes.
Hundreds of students had also outside Aiwan-i-Iqbal last week against universities’ policies. On Friday, a number of students of various public and private universities had protested outside of the governor house to demand annulment of physical examinations.
Government will now face the full power of the student movement
Meanwhile, activist Ammar Ali Jan strongly condemned the incident, saying that the government had “crossed all limits”.
“Government will now face the full power of the student movement”, he added
