LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistani police fired tear gas and charged protesting students who ransacked a college building on Thursday, as anger flared over allegations of school rape.
There is a lot of tension in the colleges as reports about the alleged rape in the eastern city of Lahore spread on the social media, and protests have broken out in four cities so far.
The latest violence began when hundreds of students protested outside the campus in the city of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They set fire to furniture and blocked a key road in the town, disrupting traffic, before breaking into the college building. Police responded by waving batons and firing tear gas to disperse them, said police chief Mohammad Afzal. In a statement, the police said they arrested 150 students for disturbing the peace.
In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard was killed in clashes between student protesters and the police on Wednesday. Police have arrested a person in connection with the death.
They also arrested a man accused of spreading false news on social media about alleged rape and inciting students to revolt.
Earlier this week, more than 22 college students were injured when they clashed with the police in Lahore after they gathered to demand justice for the victim, who was allegedly raped at a school in the Punjab Group of Colleges.
The authorities, including the provincial chief minister and the college management, have denied that there was any assault, as have the girl’s parents.
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan, but is underreported because of the stigma attached to it in the conservative country. Protests about sexual harassment of women are not uncommon.
Hasna Cheema, of the human rights organization Aurat Foundation, said that the Pakistani police and the media are not trained to handle sensitive issues like this.
“They make things worse instead of solving them,” said Cheema.
The Sustainable Social Development Organization said last month that there will be 7,010 rape cases reported in Pakistan by 2023, almost 95% of them in Punjab.
“However, due to social stigma in Pakistan that discourages women from seeking help, there is a high possibility that due to underreporting the actual number of cases may be much higher,” she said.
This week’s protests come less than a month after a woman said she was gang-raped while on duty during a polio vaccination campaign in the southern province of Sindh.
The police arrested three men. Her husband threw her out of the house after the beating incident, claiming that she had tarnished his family name.
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