LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistani police fired tear gasoline and charged at scholar protesters who ransacked a university constructing Thursday, as anger unfold over an alleged on-campus rape.
Tensions have been excessive on school campuses since experiences concerning the alleged rape within the japanese metropolis of Lahore went viral on social media, and protests have damaged out in 4 cities to this point.
The newest violence began when tons of of scholars demonstrated exterior a campus within the metropolis of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They burned furnishings and blocked a key street within the metropolis, disrupting visitors, earlier than ransacking a university constructing. Police responded by swinging batons and firing tear gasoline to disperse them, police official Mohammad Afzal stated. In an announcement, police stated they arrested 150 college students on costs of disrupting the peace.
In Gujrat, additionally in Punjab province, a safety guard died in clashes between scholar protesters and police on Wednesday. The police have arrested somebody in reference to the loss of life.
Additionally they arrested a person who’s accused of spreading misinformation on social media concerning the alleged rape and inciting college students to violence.
Earlier this week, greater than two dozen school college students have been injured in clashes with police in Lahore after they rallied to demand justice for the sufferer, who they alleged was raped on campus on the Punjab Group of Faculties.
Authorities, together with the province’s chief minister and the school administration, denied there was an assault, as did the younger lady’s dad and mom.
Sexual violence towards girls is widespread in Pakistan, however it’s underreported due to the stigma connected to it within the conservative nation. Protests about sexual violence towards girls are unusual.
Hasna Cheema, from the rights group Aurat Basis, stated neither Pakistani police nor the media have been educated to deal with such delicate issues.
“They flip issues from unhealthy to worse as an alternative of fixing them,” Cheema stated.
The Sustainable Social Improvement Group stated final month that there have been 7,010 rape instances reported in Pakistan in 2023, virtually 95% of them in Punjab.
“Nonetheless, as a consequence of social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage girls from getting assist, there’s a excessive likelihood that as a consequence of underreporting the precise variety of instances could also be even larger,” it stated.
This week’s protests come lower than a month after a lady stated she was gang-raped whereas on responsibility throughout a polio vaccination drive in southern Sindh province.
Police arrested three males. Her husband threw her out of the home after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the household title.
