[DAWN] THE arrests at a Punjab University hostel and the subsequent ugly street protest by the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba...
The Islamic Students' Organization: the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, where young Moslems are trained into the arts of street fighting...
in Lahore on Monday were the latest eruptions of tensions that had been brewing for a while now. Simply put, the Punjab University has in recent times been trying to cleanse its campuses of the influence the Jamaat was allowed to build up over time. The violent rioting on Monday was a statement of the Jamaat's resolve to resist its dethroning. The latest round in the PU-IJT tussle had its origins in an incident last week at the Law College in Lahore in which some Jamaat activists were accused of browbeating a couple of teachers. The incident itself was cause enough for a probe and solution. But in the given circumstances, it was more reason for what is being widely seen as intensification of the campaign to rein in the Jamaat, an action that has been justly demanded over the years to free the Punjab University from fear and the unwritten code imposed on it.
It is not too difficult to see what distinguishes the current Punjab University administration from its predecessors who were always reluctant to move against the Jamaat's excesses. The IJT's parent body, the Jamaat-e-Islami