ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province have closed all educational institutes for today, Friday, amid widespread student protests over reports of a college campus rape.
The protests first broke out in the provincial capital of Lahore last week after social media reports suggested a student had been raped in the basement of a Punjab College for Women campus in the city.
The police, college and provincial government have said that no victim has come forward and blamed online misinformation for the unrest, but the protests have since spread to campuses across Lahore as well as Rawalpindi and other cities.
“All the public and private sector colleges and universities in Punjab shall remain closed on Friday, October 18,” the Punjab higher education department said in a notification on Thursday night.
Separately, the school education department ordered all public and private schools shut across the province on Friday.
On Thursday, more than 350 people were arrested in Rawalpindi, which neighbors the federal capital of Islamabad, on charges of damaging public property and engaging in arson, according to the police. Teams have been set up for more arrests.
“Special teams will also identify those inciting mischief on social media,” the police said on X.
The demonstrators, mostly male students, smashed windows and burned school buses at campuses in Lahore and have also clashed with police at many of the demonstrations, accusing authorities of a cover-up.
“They’ve bribed the government and top officials to cover up the truth, just to protect their institution’s reputation,” said a 19-year-old student protesting in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
“This is not fake news — it’s 100 percent real,” added Inshai, another 19-year-old demonstrator, who did not want to give her last name.
The protests reflect a deep concern among Pakistani students over safety, harassment and sexual assault against women at educational institutions as well as their mistrust in authorities.
Police arrested a security guard who was identified in online posts but said no victim had come forward and that they had not been able to verify the rape allegation.
“The incident does not exist,” Arif Chaudry, the Lahore director of the private Punjab Group of Colleges that runs the women’s college, said on Wednesday. “I will resign and I will leave this profession and stand with the students if the incident took place.”
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has said that those spreading “false posts” will be punished.
— With additional input from AFP
Pakistan’s Punjab shuts educational institutes amid student unrest
https://arab.news/cvenf
Pakistan’s Punjab shuts educational institutes amid student unrest
- The protests first broke out in Lahore last week after social media reports suggested a student had been raped in the basement of a women college campus
- The police, college management and the provincial government have said that no victim has come forward and blamed online misinformation for the unrest
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
