ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party Thursday strongly denounced assault on students in Lahore and called for early release of arrested student.
Former Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said baton charge and arrest of the students in Lahore by Punjab police is strongly condemned. In a statement, he said students protesting against matters relating to academics have been charged under various provisions of Pakistan Penal Code and section 16 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960.
He said that this act of Punjab government against the peaceful students is not new as in the past also the student have been charged under 124-A of the PPC for sedition. Mian Raza Rabbani said Professor Ammar Ali Jan was demonstrating for academic freedom was kidnapped and subsequently released on public pressure. “Such acts of the state to suffocate, terrify and brutalize the students and academia are growing indications that state is moving towards fascism where no dissent whether it be political or academic is allowed,” he said.
The former Chairman said he may not agree on some of the demands of the students but cannot support the brutalization of the student movement at the hand of the state. “It seems that the state has not learnt from the history—let them recall, it was a small incident in Rawalpindi and Karachi that ignited the flames of the students movement.