Pakistani police fired tear gas at protesting students as anger over an alleged rape spread on campus

Lahore: Pakistani police fired tear gas and cracked down on student protesters who ransacked a college building on Thursday as anger over an alleged rape spread on campus.

Tensions have been high on university campuses since reports of the alleged rape in the eastern city of Lahore went viral on social media, with protests breaking out in four cities so far.

The latest violence began when hundreds of students demonstrated outside a campus in the city of Rawalpindi, in Punjab province. They burned furniture and blocked a key city street, disrupting traffic, before ransacking a university building. Police responded by swinging batons and firing tear gas to disperse them, police officer Mohammad Afzal said. In a statement, police said they had arrested 150 students on charges of disturbing the peace.

In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard died in clashes between student protesters and police on Wednesday. Police have arrested someone in connection with the death.

They also arrested a man accused of spreading misinformation about the alleged rape on social media and inciting students to violence.

Earlier this week, more than two dozen college students were injured in clashes with police in Lahore after they gathered to demand justice for the victim who they said was raped on the campus of the Punjab Group of Colleges.

Authorities, including the province’s premier and college administration, denied it was an attack, as did the young woman’s parents.

Sexual violence against women is widespread in Pakistan but goes underreported due to the stigma associated with it in the conservative country. Protests over sexual violence against women are rare.

Hasna Cheema of the human rights group Aurat Foundation said neither the Pakistani police nor the media were trained to handle such sensitive matters.

“They keep making things worse instead of solving them,” Cheema said.

The Organization for Sustainable Social Development said last month that 7,010 rape cases were reported in Pakistan in 2023, nearly 95% of them in Punjab.

“However, due to the social stigma in Pakistan that discourages women from seeking help, there is a high possibility that the actual number of cases is even higher due to under-reporting,” it said.

This week’s protests come less than a month after a woman said she was raped multiple times while on duty during a polio vaccination drive in the southern province of Sindh.

The police arrested three men. Her husband kicked her out of the house after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the family name.