Balochistan University students hold protests over harassment of by varsity officials

Various students organisations here on Tuesday staged demonstration inside the premises of Balochistan University in protest against harassment and blackmail of students allegedly by varsity officials.

The students marched inside the campus to mount pressure on the university authorities to punish the culprits allegedly involved in the harassment of female and male students, Dawn News reported.

The case had come to light about a month ago when the Balochistan High Court (BHC) directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate reports of students being harassed at the varsity.

On Monday, the FIA interrogated three officials of the university in connection with a case. "We have traced 12 videos of harassment of female students," a senior officer of FIA on conditions of anonymity told Dawn.

He added that most of the victims in the case are female students who were harassed by some officials in the university's administration.

The FIA, which has been probing the case for several weeks now, found out that male and female students were being harassed through "objectionable" videos of them.

These videos were recorded using at least six cameras that were secretly installed at various spots in the university's Quetta campus, in addition to the already existing official CCTV cameras.

"This is not acceptable. We cannot compromise on our dignity," Khalid Baloch, the central office-bearer of Baloch Students Organisation said.

The protesters lamented that the harassment scandal has severely affected the atmosphere of education in the province in general and at the university in particular.

The protestors carried placards inscribed with slogans such as "punish the accused", " no to harassment", "we want justice".

"This harassment was going on for a long time in the university," Kabeer Afghan, the central office-bearer of Pashtoonkhwa Students Organisation was quoted as saying.

The students, chanting slogans against the university administration, demanded a comprehensive probe into the matter. They also demanded the removal of the Vice-Chancellor and other high-ups.

"Harassment cases should be probed in all three major universities of Quetta," Dawood Shah, the president of Insaf Students Federation, demanded at a press conference at the Quetta Press Club held later in the day.

He said that the government must act quickly to bring the perpetrators to book so that such incidents could be avoided in future.

Reacting over the allegations, Balochistan University Vice-Chancellor, Javed Iqbal, in a video clip obtained by Dawn News TV said, "We will cooperate with FIA in exposing the elements involved in the scandal."

He dispelled the impression that the FIA had made any arrest from the university.