LAHORE – Three University of Education (UoE) students were injured on Thursday when union activists and security guards clashed with each other. UoE faculty and students condemned the student union activists for attacking the varsity campus while security guards said that they had already informed the varsity administration that student activists will attack the campus.
Guards said that a number of protesters were not varsity students and protesting for their vested interests while faculty members said that around 2,000 students are enrolled in the university and only two dozen students participated in the protest and 99 percent of students want to just attain education and oppose all such kinds of protests.
On Thursday, a tense situation was seen at the UoE Main Campus Township, as student activists attacked the campus when academic activities were going on. Three students including Bilal Safdar, Sileet Basit and Saqib Riaz were injured in the clash while union activists continued their protests in favour of a contractual teacher who is allegedly involve in embezzlement and terminated by the varsity administration.
Since last week, union activists and some students are protesting against termination of contractual teachers including Anwar Rehman Pasha and his wife Shaheen, who have been terminated by the UoE administration. The Punjab government had also set-up a committee to probe into the matter but officials said that stance of the varsity administration is very clear that it reserves the right to sack a contractual employee if he is corrupt.
A UoE official said that every thing is fine inside the campus and students are disturbed due to propaganda of a student union, which is playing into hands of others. He said that the administration was informed by guards about the issue. He said that police were stopped by the Punjab government to take action against protesters but how could the administration allow them to manhandle teachers and students who want to carry on with their routine work.
The UoE official said that those students were injured in the clash who were disturbing peace of the varsity and the guards took action against them for their own protection. He said that it is hooliganism that a contractual teacher, who was terminated following disciplinary action, is using the union as a force against the varsity administration and blackmailing the varsity to appoint him as a regular professor.
A female faculty member said that the Punjab government should consider security of teachers who are rendering their services at the varsity and facing security threats. She said that teachers are in favour of taking action against those elements, which attack educational institutions and the Punjab CM should take notice of a contractual teacher, who has established a pressure group to disturb peace of the varsity where thousands of students are studying.
On the other hand, UoE students said that they were peacefully protesting when varsity guards attacked them after being ordered by the varsity administration.
Three injured as union activists and guards clash at UoE
