Students and security officials hurt in Pakistan clashes

Karachi: Two security officials and several students were injured on Tuesday when two student organisations clashed at a university campus leading to the postponement of examinations for a master's degree, police and the administration said.

The clash between the two student organisations began on the issue of attracting the new batch of students to their respective political camps at the Gulshane Iqbal campus at Federal Urdu University, where the examinations were also being held.

Gunfire

The activist students attacked each other with sticks and stones whereas a group fired a gun outside the campus, injuring a policeman. A paramilitary rangers official also sustained an injury when an object was thrown at him.

Abdul Salam, the senior police officer at Gulshane Iqbal district, said one of his men suffered gunshot wounds whereas several other students were injured after being hit by sticks and stones but the situation was controlled by the police. The police also took many students into custody to investigate the matter and register a case.

The state-run university postponed the examination and said it would announce a new date later on.

Students politics in Pakistan have a chequered history. In the early years of independence they added to the country's politics constructively and played a vanguard role of rich democratic traditions.

Before student unions were banned by the Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship in 1984, their activities were conducted through regular annual elections in universities and colleges.

Student unions were revived again during the first Benazir Bhutto government in 1988. However, they were banned once again by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1992, amid growing violence and agitation.