Competition glorifying Bin Laden on the cards

More than a month after terrorist kingpin Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces at Abbottabad, a group of his fans have advertised a competition to keep the terrorist mastermind’s legacy alive, Pakistan Today has learnt. Advertisement of the competition is going on at full swing at the Punjab University (PU) premises, especially boys’ hostels and the Student Teacher Centre housing the Hall Council chairman’s and the student advisor’s office. Instead of mentioning a specific venue, organisers of the competition have given an email address [email protected] to e-mail the entries in a bid to prevent a possible crackdown. June 30 is the deadline to send entries for the contest. The number of entries in the competition are yet to be verified. Posters affixed at walls of the PU campus carry design of the 9/11 twin tower blasts in their background. The colorful promos portray the message that the competition is in memory of the benefactor of the whole Islamic World. “Bayaad-e-Mohsin-e-Ummat Sheikh Osama Bin Laden” is the main attraction of the poster.
The contest includes essay writing, poetry and poster design competitions. Participants are asked to write essays on topics including ‘Real achievement of OBL’, ‘Sheikh OBL: Benefactor of Muslim Ummah’ and ‘Osama: A thorn in hearts of infidels’. It is not the first time that such activities are seen in the PU, as some banned radical groups have been targeting the campus since long to get their following in the youth. In the past, such groups used to focus on religious schools to recruit young blood. Some radical groups, which are targeting educational institutions, include the Jamatud Dawa and Hizbut Tahrir but the pamphlets being distributed did not bear any organisation’s name.
The varsity administration did not seem interested in providing students a peaceful learning environment by ignoring such sort of activities. A PU teacher, who is also the superintendent of a hostel, seeking anonymity, said that some radical groups are active in the varsity and he has reported it to the higher administration but no action has been taken in this regard. Accusing the police of cooperating with religious groups, the teacher said that he was attacked twice in his house because of his efforts to make the hostel criminal-free but despite several requests, the Muslim Town Police Station SHO did not provide him security.
PU Hall Council Chairman Dr Amin Athar admitted having knowledge of such literature being distributed in hostels and claimed that security guards removed it immediately. About the competition posters, he said that they would be removed as well. But contrary to his claims, the stickers are still placed in hostels at some places.
Confusing promoters of jihadi agenda with a religious student union, Athar said that their presence on the campus is a known fact but the administration tries its best to keep them under control. He refused to comment on complaint of the hostel superintendent about the administration’s blind eye towards illegal residents in the hostels. He blamed the campus security officer for activities of such groups but PU Chief Security Officer Major (r) Arif refused to comment on the issue and threw the ball in the resident officer’s court.
On being contacted, PU Resident Officer Javed Sami showed complete ignorance and said that he never received any information of this sort of stickers and posters being displayed in hostels. Replying to a question of responsibility of ignorance, he said that a team including the chairman hall council, wardens and superintendents of hostels and student advisor keeps an eye on such activities but nothing such has been reported in the recent past. Sami suspected that the Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) is backing organisers of the competition.
Students had mixed reactions on the issue. Some praised the killed terrorist mastermind saying that he was doing jihad against the real terrorist, the US. A number of other students including, Shoaib Ahmed, said that it is horrifying to see such an open support for an international criminal who had blood of thousands of people on his hands.
In the past, arms and ammunition were recovered from PU premises and people from FATA with cases registered against them of using illegal weapons were also found residing in PU hostels. Search operations have been carried out after incidences of violence in the past. But students complained that the varsity did not follow the incidents after some days.