Pakistan province closes educational institutions after violent protests over alleged rape

LAHORE, Pakistan – Authorities closed schools, colleges and universities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Friday following the country’s most violent student protests in recent years over the alleged rape of a female student on campus, officials said.

Protests have spread since Monday, with participants alleging that a female student was raped by a security guard on the campus of a chain of private colleges in the city of Lahore.

Hundreds of protesting students demanded government action, but authorities say they have yet to find any evidence of such an incident, with some blaming social media for spreading fake news.

Dozens of students, police officers and university staff have been injured since Monday when protesters clashed with authorities while storming several jail campuses, police said, adding that hundreds of students had been arrested.

All educational institutions will remain closed on Friday, said an order issued by the Punjab government and seen by Reuters. No official reason was given.

“We have investigated this thoroughly – no such incident has happened,” Lahore police chief Bilal Saddique Kamyana said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that no complainant has come forward on the matter.

Despite official denials, anger has grown in Pakistan, especially on social media.

FAKE NEWS

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, in a press conference, said the incident was fake news spread by the party of political rival Imran Khan, who has been in jail since last year.

Nawaz, daughter of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said several social media accounts, including those affiliated with Khan’s party, shared “doctored images” of the alleged victim and that some video bloggers also spread false information.

Shaukat Basra, provincial information secretary for Khan’s party, accused Nawaz of trying to hide the crime.

“If it was fake news and the PTI (Khan’s party) took students to the roads, why did it close all educational institutions in Punjab?” he told Reuters.

Although some students said the victim was admitted to a hospital, police say the identified girl was there days before the alleged incident after falling down a flight of stairs.

In an attempt to quell rumors, police released a video featuring a man wearing a surgical mask who identified himself as the girl’s father, saying she was being wrongly named as a rape victim.

Even so, students continued their protests, saying that authorities were trying to hush up the case due to the involvement of powerful people.

A petitioner requested the courts to intervene on Friday, and Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelum ordered the creation of an independent panel, headed by the head of the Federal Investigation Agency, government prosecutor Khalil Ishaq said.

Agha Tahir, general director of the chain of colleges where the incident allegedly took place, which has almost 600,000 students enrolled, said he had presented all official records and closed-circuit camera footage to help with the police investigation. REUTERS