Police used brute force against students at Islamia College Complex after a large contingent of riot cops tried to vacate the institution’s building on the orders of the court. Hostilities erupted after court officials served the college administration with orders to vacate the building but they refused to comply with them and reportedly incited students to resist the vacation.
According to the principal of the college, they have not received a copy of the court.
“How can we vacate the building without the hard copy of the court order,” the principal told Geo News.
The court officials later requested the relevant police station to send riot police. The police used teargas and water cannon to disperse the students who were protesting against the use of brute force by the police to force the college’s administration, faculty, and students out of the building complex. Police said they arrived at the scene only to support the court bailiff. “We are under the court orders to hand over the possession of the college building to the trustees who recently won a case against the illegal occupancy of the building. The college is built on private property.”
Later, the protesting students were dispersed by the police that arrested around three students and locked them up in the police station. The police and the bailiff officials were busy negotiating a way out with the college administration by the time of the filing of this report.
The Islamia College is among Pakistan’s oldest educational institutions, nationalised under martial law regulations in 1972 and since then the Sindh education department has been managing its affairs. The ground-plus-three-storey Islamia College building complex is situated in Jamshed Quarters and before nationalisation, the colleges and schools that exist within the complex were running under the administration of the Islamic Education Trust.
