Pashtun separatist activists have condemned the clash between Pashtun and Punjabi student groups in Punjab University (PU) that led to the hospitalisation of around 10 students, while a dozen were arrested by police in Lahore, Pakistan, earlier this week.
A fight broke out when Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) allegedly attacked a group of Pashtun students who were celebrating Nawroz, an important Pashtun festival, on the campus. The Pashtun activists who have been demanding that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa be made a separate Pashtun nation, “identified” this clash as prove of “ethnic discrimination” faced by the Pashtuns in Pakistan.
Umar Daud Khattak, a Pashtun activist, said, “IJT is notorious for such discriminatory practices that they justify through their extreme religious beliefs. Members of IJT are Punjabi religious extremists who don’t want us Pashtuns, Balochs and Sindhis to get involved with the mainstream. They treat students of these ethnic groups as outsiders. This was not the first attack that took place because of extreme cultural discrimination.” In February, IJT had clashed with members of the Pashtun students’ organisation after offering Friday prayers that led to hospitalisation of five students.
Imran Wazeer (name changed), another Pashtun separatist activist, said, “In a university, students often organise events and celebrations to commemorate the historical and old cultural values and norms. But some Punjabi religious extremists almost always try to create a scene. It is a known fact and not a baseless allegation. Pashtuns in Pakistan have to prove themselves that they are not Afghans coming from Afghanistan. Students from Sindh are often mishandled by Pakistani police.”
Khattak, who now lives in Afghanistan and is a known separatist activist, said, “Pashtuns are also discriminated against in offices, businesses and day-to-day life in Pakistan. For five years, I have lived in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. I have witnessed that they consider Pashtuns as less humans and less ‘Pakistanis’. A Pashtun can hardly get a good job in Pakistan. Jobs like sweeper, guard, office boy, caretakers, peon and other blue collar jobs are the destiny of Pashtuns in Pakistan.”
The Pakistani media has also condemned these ethnic attacks that brought the deep ethnic prejudices to the fore once again. Vowing strict action against the disruptive elements involved in the violence, the vice chancellor of Punjab University constituted a high-powered fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif also took strong notice of the violence at the campus and ordered the city police department to send back a detailed report.
According to media reports, cadres of IJT and Pakhtun and Baloch students living in the Punjab University hostel had exchanged blows many times over the past couple of years. The rivalry between these student orgnisations is fuelled by the political perception that dominates Baloch and Pashtun students’ identity as “outsiders”. Since Baloch and Pashtun students deny amalgamating their cultural practices with the strict code” of the IJT, the tension continues.