KU students question their safety on campus after Sagheer’s abduction

Concerned over fellow student Sagheer Ahmed Baloch’s abduction from the University of Karachi’s campus, students of the Department of Political Science held a silent protest outside the varsity’s administration block on Friday.

The students urged the KU management to probe Sagheer’s disappearance and to apprise students of what measures were being taken to protect other pupils from such happenings.

A second-year student at KU’s political science department, 21-year-old Sagheer was picked up by men in plainclothes from a canteen of the varsity on November 20. His whereabouts since remain unknown.

Joined by a few other concerned students, the protesters stood outside the admin block for over half an hour until they were called in by KU Registrar Dr Munawwar Rasheed. As per Waqas Aalam Angaria, one of Sagheer’s classmates, Dr Rasheed said the varsity’s job was to ensure the missing student’s documentation was in order and that it did take the matter seriously enough for an FIR to be registered.

Anagria said the registrar told him that the management had verified the fact that Sagheer was indeed a student of the varsity but they were still unclear over where he was picked up from. He said the registrar has called the protesters again to further discuss the matter.

Speaking of the incident Angaria said the varsity should investigate the incident and pin the responsibility on whoever was behind the incident. “The university owes this security to its students.”

Izhar Ahmed, another classmate of Sagheer’s, opined that it was the responsibility of the university to find out why one of its students was picked up. He said he had known the 21-year-old for two years and could say with surety that he was not involved in any practice that could merit such a punishment.

The students were also joined by the sister of the missing student, Hameeda Qadir. “It is the varsity’s duty to provide security to its students and to be answerable in case anything happens to them on campus. KU should not run away from its responsibilities,” she said.