Pakistan: Hindu Students Attacked By Islami Jamiat Members For Celebrating Holi, Then Beaten Up By University Staff For Protesting

At least 15 Hindu students at a university in Pakistan were left injured on Monday after activists from a radical Islamist group attacked them for celebrating Holi in the campus, as per various news reports.

Pakistan’s English newspaper The Dawn reported that the activists allegedly belonged to an organisation called Islami Jamiat Tulba (IJT) and the incident took place at University of Punjab (PU).

Journalists and activists from Pakistan have shared several videos of the incident.

One of those shows Hindu students raising slogans of “save minorities”.

Another video shows a group of Hindu students saying on camera that they were peacefully playing Holi when members of Islami Jamiat attacked them. 

“When Pakistanis celebrate Eid without any issue, then why is celebrating Holi a problem,” a student says.

As per The Dawn report, Sindh Council general secretary Kashif Brohi said that Hindu students and the council had organised Holi celebrations at the campus after taking permission from the university, but IJT activists attacked them when they were outside PU law college.

The attackers were carrying guns and batons, Brohi said.

Later, when the Hindu students tried to stage a protest outside the vice chancellor’s office, they were attacked again, this time by security guards, Brohi said.

He added that the council had given a complaint to the administration as well as police for registration of a case.

The newspaper also quoted a spokesperson of IJT, denying involvement of Jamiat members and saying that they had organised a Quran-reading event at the campus at the same time when the Holi celebrations were held.

A similar incident was witnessed in New Delhi’s Jamia Milia Islamia University campus last week when minority Hindu students were stopped from playing Holi at the campus with majority students raising the chants of Naara-E-Takbir and Allahu Akbar.

Two days ago, communal violence was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district when some Hindu youths asking for donations for Holi Dahan ritual were reportedly insulted as “beggars” by youths from the other community, resulting in stone-pelting.