21 students injured in Pakistan’s Punjab University campus clash over boy and girl sitting together
Lahore, March 16
Twenty-one students of Pakistan’s Punjab University here were injured, some of them critically, when they clashed with members of a radical Islamic outfit who objected to a boy and a girl sitting together.
A girl and a boy were seen sitting at a canteen outside the Gender Studies Department on Tuesday, when members of the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) asked them to leave.
When they objected, one of the IJT members slapped the boy, a university official said.
Other students stepped in and they first tried to stop the IJT members from harassing the boy and the girl. But it soon escalated into a full-blown clash.
Some of the students were armed with iron and wooden rods, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Most of the students were admitted to a nearby hospital after suffering head injuries. So far, two students were arrested, police said. The Punjab University has more than 30,000 students in its rolls.
