Court hears Hazara University application today

Civil, police officers named for insulting
 VC, registrar and torturing students

PESHAWAR:  A local court would hear today an application filed by the administration of the Hazara University Mansehra against the top civil and police officers in Hazara division for insulting the university’s vice-chancellor and registrar and beating up and torturing students.

The application in the court of Additional Sessions Judge-IV, Mansehra was filed by Major (R) Shireen Zaman, the director administration of the Hazara University.

 The applicant alleged that the police refused to register his case and one of its officers tore down his application. He wanted the court to order registration of a case against the civil and police officers involved in the insult of the Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Idrees and registrar Prof Dr Manzoor Hussain Shah and causing injuries to the students.

The respondent in the case was the Police Station Shinkiari. The applicant named the District Police Officer (DPO) Mansehra, Ahsan Saifullah, SP Mansehra, Rauf Qaisarani, Deputy Commissioner Mansehra, Iqbal Hussain, Assistant Commissioner Naveed Ahmad, DSP Nazeer Tanoli as the accused. Subsequently in his second application the court, he added DIG Police Hazara Range, Saeed Khan Wazir, DP Haripur Shahzad Bokhari and DPO Battagram Saboor Khan to the list of the accused.

The applicant said he had taken the body of a university student Suleman, killed by an outsider at the snooker club located opposite the Hazara University to the Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad for postmortem when the police on November 2 resorted to violence through lathicharge and made unwarranted arrests of the students. It may be added that a former Hazara University student, Chanzeb, belonging to Mansehra allegedly shot dead Suleman, hailing from Swat, at the snooker club. Later, he reportedly killed another student Tayyab and escaped. However, Chanzeb has now been arrested.

A large number of students protested the murder of Suleman and took to the streets by blocking the Karakoram Highway for traffic. Later, the police came to the university in force. The university administration tried to persuade the protesting students to end the blockade of the road and hold dialogue for ending the stalemate.

 According to Dr Manzoor Hussain Shah, the university registrar, the dialogue was successful and the almost 16 students who had come as a jirga and held talks with the administration were proceeding outside the university to ask the remaining students to end the protest when the police swung into action.

“The cops locked me and the vice-chancellor in a room and started lathicharge on these students in the premises of the university guesthouse. We were insulted and this lowered the trust of the students and staff in us,” he recalled.  “We have 14,000 students at the university and will they repose trust in us in future?” he asked.  He said these 16 students were still imprisoned at the Bannu prison under 3 Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). He said the students suffered injuries and some had their bones broken and eyes damaged.

SP Rauf Qaisarani was in particular singled out for insulting the vice-chancellor and registrar and declaring that he is the law.

The applicant, Major Shireen Zaman in his plea to the court said the SP Mansehra Rauf Qaisarani ordered the arrest of the vice-chancellor and the registrar and told his men to beat up the students after asking them to come inside the guesthouse.

“It was alleged that we have hidden the students in a room in the guesthouse to protect them, but when the police barged into the guesthouse there was no student inside at the time. Later, the students were asked to come inside the guesthouse and this is when the cops began to beat them,” he alleged.