21 students injured in Pakistan’s Punjab University campus clash over boy and girl sitting together

Lahore (TIP): Twenty-one students of Pakistan’s Punjab University here were injured, some of them critically, when they clashed with members of a radical Islamic outfit who objected to a boy and a girl sitting together. A girl and a boy were seen sitting at a canteen outside the Gender Studies Department on March 15, when members of the IslamiJamiatTulaba (IJT) asked them to leave. When they objected, one of the IJT members slapped the boy, a university official said. Other students stepped in and they first tried to stop the IJT members from harassing the boy and the girl. But it soon escalated into a full-blown clash. Some of the students were armed with iron and wooden rods, the Dawn newspaper reported. Most of the students were admitted to a nearby hospital after suffering head injuries. So far, two students were arrested, police said. The Punjab University has more than 30,000 students in its rolls. (PTI)