PU student arrested for links with TTP

With the Punjab University suspending 29 students from various departments for their alleged involvement in violence on its campus last month, the intelligence agencies have taken into custody a student for his “links with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)”.

Attique Afridi, a student of the university’s Hailey College of Commerce, allegedly tortured a fellow student over a minor issue on Friday.

But when he was presented before senior officials of the university, Afridi declared TTP’s Nek Mohammad and Baitullah Mehsud as his leaders and vowed to avenge their killings, said retired Maj Saleem, the university’s chief security officer.

He said that Afridi, who was associated with the Pakhtun Educational Development Movement, recently dropped out of college because of his poor academic record. “The intelligence agencies have picked him up and are interrogating him,” he said.

The 29 suspended students, meanwhile, will be appearing before the university’s disciplinary committee to explain their position on the violent incidents. If they fail to do so they may be expelled from the university.

They have links with the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba (IJT), Baloch Council and Pakhtun Educational Development Movement.

A fight broke out last month over playing of music loudly at the university’s Hostel No 4, which left at least 15 students injured, some of them seriously.

The Baloch Council, said to be close to the Pakhtun Educational Development Movement, alleged that IJT activists attacked its members. But the IJT insisted that Baloch and Pakhtun students fought each other over the minor matter and that its members were unnecessarily dragged into the issue.

The university identified the students involved in the clash through CCTV footage and determined their punishment accordingly.

University spokesman Khurram Shahzad confirmed that the 29 students might be expelled if they couldn’t satisfy the disciplinary committee.

The rising tensions between the groups forced the university administration to get them to sign a ‘peace agreement’. However, they have not been honouring the agreement.