EGN NEWS DESK
LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistani police fired tear gasoline and charged at pupil protesters who ransacked a university constructing Thursday, as anger unfold over an alleged on-campus rape.
Tensions have been excessive on faculty campuses since experiences in regards to the alleged rape within the japanese metropolis of Lahore went viral on social media, and protests have damaged out in 4 cities to date.
The newest violence began when lots of of scholars demonstrated exterior a campus within the metropolis of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They burned furnishings and blocked a key highway within the metropolis, disrupting site 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 pupil protesters and police on Wednesday. The police have arrested somebody in reference to the dying.
They additionally arrested a person who’s accused of spreading misinformation on social media in regards to the alleged rape and inciting college students to violence.
Earlier this week, greater than two dozen faculty college students had 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 Colleges.
Authorities, together with the province’s chief minister and the faculty administration, denied there was an assault, as did the younger girl’s mother and father.
Sexual violence in opposition to girls is frequent in Pakistan, however it’s underreported due to the stigma hooked up to it within the conservative nation. Protests about sexual violence in opposition to girls are unusual.
Hasna Cheema, from the rights group Aurat Foundation, stated neither Pakistani police nor the media had been skilled to deal with such delicate issues.
“They flip issues from dangerous to worse as a substitute of fixing them,” Cheema stated.
The Sustainable Social Development Organization stated final month that there have been 7,010 rape instances reported in Pakistan in 2023, virtually 95% of them in Punjab.
“However, attributable to social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage girls from getting assist, there’s a excessive likelihood that attributable to underreporting the precise variety of instances could also be even increased,” it stated.
This week’s protests come lower than a month after a girl stated she was gang-raped whereas on obligation 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.
