All schools and universities have been closed in Pakistan’s Punjab province amid student protests over the rape of a woman. After a female student was allegedly raped on campus, protests erupted demanding justice.
The Punjab Home Department has banned all gatherings on Friday and Saturday.
Syed Khalid Mehmood Hamdani, a police official in Punjab’s Rawalpindi, told AFP on Friday that 380 people had been arrested in connection with arson and vandalism in the name of protests. He said that those who are involved in this will be found out.
The first protests started last week in Lahore, the provincial capital. At that time it went viral on social media, a female student was raped in the basement of Punjab College.
Then the police arrested a security guard. Who is accused of being a rapist through social media. However, the police said that no one came to them with rape allegations and they could not confirm the truth of the rape allegations.
However, after the rape allegations went viral, protests broke out in various educational institutions in Lahore and Rawalpindi. Police used tear gas and lathicharge to quell the protests. The students say that the administration is trying to hide the rape allegation.
So far, thousands of students involved in the protests have been arrested.
The police claim that protests are being organized in Punjab by spreading rumors of rape. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has threatened that all those who spread rape posts on social media will be severely punished.
