Involvement of KU student in terror: KU hands over security control to Rangers

KARACHI: The University of Karachi (KU) on Tuesday handed over security affairs to paramilitary Rangers to deal with the situation emerging after revelation that one of its former students is associated with Jamaat Ansarul Shariah Pakistan, and masterminded several attacks on law enforcement personnel, besides carrying out life attempt on Sindh Assembly's Leader of the Opposition Khawaja Izharul Hassan.

This decision was taken in a two-hour-long meeting chaired by the Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Ajmal Khan at the University of Karachi on Tuesday. In the meeting, attended by the varsity's teaching and non-teaching staff, the participants looked into the academic and other records of Abdul Kareem Sarosh Siddiqui. Siddiqui was enrolled in the Department of Applied Physics in 2010 in the evening program, but his registration was suspended in 2015 when he failed to clear papers of the masters level. 

The meeting also decided to fully cooperate with the investigators in the probe against Siddiqui. There is a likelihood  that faculty and non-teaching staff of the Department of Applied Physics would be quizzed by the investigators. The investigators, however, would have to take permission from the Rangers before entering the campus. 

KU VC Prof Dr Ajmal Khan protested against the law enforcement personnel for allegedly defaming the varsity due to involvement of its ex-student in terrorism. The meeting also devised the university media coverage policy entailing mandatory Rangers permission for any media coverage of the university. The same policy would apply to the faculty members who would have to inform campus security officer in advance to get media to visit them, sources said. According to sources, the meeting also pondered over a suggestion to seek mandatory police verification for all new admissions.

The meeting, sources said, also  discussed the Rs30 million grant of Higher Education Commission for strengthening the university's security following attack at the Bacha Khan University at Charsadda, in January 2016 in which a student was lynched by fellow students. Sources said the meeting also discussed installation of CCTV cameras in the campus. The meeting was told that the varsity would spend Rs4.2 million for the construction of boundary wall and another Rs 25.8 million to run financial affairs of the university. 

 In a seperate development, the law enforcement agencies raided the house of KU's former Dean of Islamic Studies Prof Dr Abdul Rasheed in Gulzar-e-Hijri and took his son Danish Rasheed into custody. Danish was shifted to undisclosed location for interrogation.