Students Threaten Nationwide Demonstrations Until Demands Are Accepted
Following recent violent protests that were triggered by an alleged rape event at Private College, a number of student organisations on Wednesday denounced the police raid on students.
Representatives of different student organisations declared during a news conference held at the Lahore news Club that if authorities do not stop their treatment of intermediate students in several Punjabi cities, they will stage a statewide “Student Solidarity March” on November 20.
The state’s strong response to protests in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujrat, and Rawalpindi was criticised by leaders of the Progressive Students Collective, Revolutionary Students Front, People’s Students Federation, Progressive Students Forum, and Pashtun Council. They also condemned Public University security guards for allegedly torturing and hurting protesting students.
The leaders contended that the province’s private college demonstrations were a reflection of the public’s mounting dissatisfaction with the state’s unfair practices. They added that the actual problem—the college’s alleged rape—had been overshadowed by the police’s actions against male and female students who were protesting.
By focussing on pupils in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Gujarat, they accused the state of protecting the interests of a powerful education mogul and drew attention to inconsistencies in the remarks made by government officials.
The leaders claim that heavily armed security personnel confronted unarmed students, using tear gas, baton charges, aerial shooting, and armoured vehicles to break up the demonstrations. Additionally, they said that hundreds of students between the ages of 15 and 17 were arrested and that lawsuits were brought against them.
According to the student organisations, the protests were a reaction to the repressive practices of private college administrators, who they claimed were transforming classrooms into virtual prisons and inciting students’ resentment by putting them under psychological pressure, threatening them, and charging them outrageous prices.
They demanded that students be democratically represented on anti-harassment committees and in decision-making procedures at educational institutions.
An independent commission to look into harassment complaints and publish its findings, action against the police and security guards who tortured students at Private College, the unconditional withdrawal of all charges and disciplinary actions against the protesting students, and the creation of anti-harassment committees at all institutions with democratic student representation were among the demands made in a charter issued by the student organisations.
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