Pashtun, Baloch students hold sit-in at Punjab University in Lahore
Oct 22, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], October 22 : A group of Pashtun and Baloch students, popularly known as the Pashtun Students Council, are currently holding a sit-in at Punjab University in Lahore against the arrest of Pashtun Educational Development Movement President Riaz Khan, according to vernacular media reports.
Hundreds of students who participated in the protest are demanding the release of Riaz Khan and action against Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) activists who had opened fire on students.
Vernacular media reports said protesting students are demanding that the police should not be allowed to enter the campus and action against the IJT activists who did firing in the presence of police must be taken.
Protestors also demanded that the process of harassing Pashtun and Baloch students as well as their profiling must be stopped.
The local police on October 17 registered a case against Asad, Naushad, Dawood, Saqib, Wali, Ziarat, Riaz Khan, Nisar, Arif and three unidentified persons. But only Riaz Khan was arrested.
Pashtun and Baloch students alleged that police aren't maintaining the sanctity of the educational institution and are conducting raids to arrest students, according to Vernacular media reports.
Police on the intervening night of October 16 and 17 arrested Riaz Khan, president of the Pashtun Talaba Council and registered a case against him in the morning of October 17.
Pashtun and Baloch students were harassed repeatedly by the administration and police, but no action was taken against them, students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan complained.
Students further alleged that police arrested students without registering any case and are keeping them in custody for two days.
They pledged that they would continue to protest till the release of their colleague.
Protests by human rights workers and interventions by the judiciary have not been able to shake the conscience of Pakistan's government and its deep state on the issue of rights abuses and enforced disappearance.
Successive reports from international organisations have documented the practice of enforced disappearances in Pakistan and urged Pakistani authorities to end its use as a tool of state policy.
