IJT ‘terrorists’ go scot free

• ATC orders police to drop terrorism charges against PU students, produce them before relevant courts
• Eight IJT members released on bail, two booked on robbery charges, 13 sent on judicial remand

Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday gave orders for the release of Punjab University (PU) students who were arrested on terrorism charges for creating commotion at the varsity.

As per details, police presented over 21 activists of Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT), student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), in the court, which observed that cases regarding terrorism were baseless and the police wrongfully registered terrorism cases against the students.

The arrested, who were produced before ATC, include Rao Adnan, Abu Zar Ghafari, Malk Mubashir, Hafiz Wajid and Umar Khalid. Justice Ahmed Mehmood Ranjha ordered the police to drop terrorism charges against them. He said that the accused be presented before relevant courts as they were wrongly charged under terrorism sections.

Later, the police presented the accused before two different courts in Model Town, where as many as eight of the IJT members were released on bail while two were sent on physical remand on charges of robbery and 13 were sent on judicial remand.

Police and university administration alleged that bottles of alcohol and bullets were recovered from Room No 345 which was allotted to IJT Nazim Rao Adnan. Charges against the students range from misbehaving with teachers, violence, damaging public property and blocking roads.

According to Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashood, cases under the terrorism act have been registered against students accused of misbehaving with professors. He said the police had registered nine cases against 121 students of the PU; 21 students had been named in the FIR while 100 had been listed as unidentified.

PU VC THANKS GOVERNMENT: Meanwhile, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that he was thankful to Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan for taking action against violent elements to maintain peaceful atmosphere at campus.

He was talking to media outside his office after meeting with Lahore Capital City Police Officer Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed on Tuesday. The VC said that classes and other academic activities were according to routine on campus. He expressed sorrow over the sad incident of burning of a bus and said that one activist of the student union had been identified.

Talking to media, CCPO Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed said that nobody would be allowed to take law into hands and police would take action against the elements involved in illegal activities. He said that he would himself look after the whole scenario and Lahore Police was launching a comprehensive police patrol plan.

BALOCH WANTS AN ENQUIRY: In the meanwhile, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch has urged Punjab chief minister to set up a judicial commission for a thorough enquiry into the recent happenings in the PunjabUniversity.

Baloch, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the parents and the civil society were deeply concerned over the deteriorating conditions of this historic seat of learning, especially mismanagement and moral decline. He said unfortunately, the matters had reached the courts, bringing disrepute to the institution.

Baloch said that instead of attending to the real problems of the varsity and improving its conditions, the varsity management adopted hackneyed measures to malign and harass the IJT. He said, during the last five years, whenever any scandal came to surface, PU authorities started malicious campaign against the IJT.

The JI secretary general said the latest developments in the PU campus were alarming and the tensions between the varsity authorities, the employees , the teachers and the students was threatening. He said the threatening statements of the governor, the education minister and the law minister won’t solve the matter and the chief minister should order a judicial commission for a thorough probe into the whole situation.