QAU Shuts Down After Clashes Between Student Groups

QAU is shut down until further orders due to violent clashes between student groups, according to a notice from the university registrar about the incidents.

QAU Shuts Down After Clashes Between Student Groups

One of the best universities in South Asia, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), has been shut down following new altercations between the administration, students, and law enforcement. Several students were seriously hurt during the altercations.

The injured students, according to the university administration, were in stable condition. Videos that are circulating online depict dozens of armed students chasing one another in a frenzied manner.

Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) is shut down until further orders due to violent clashes between student groups, according to a notice from the university registrar about the incidents. Also instructed to leave the property as soon as possible were all hostel residents.

Large numbers of law enforcement officers, including paramilitary troops, reportedly flocked to the university to take control of the situation, according to reports in the local media.

In July 1967, Quaid-i-Azam University (previously known as Islamabad University) was founded by an act of the National Assembly and began offering PhD and MPhil programmes in teaching and research. But eventually, it was decided to offer graduate, undergraduate, and now master’s programs.

The university admits a limited number of students from every region of the country because it is a federal public university, but it attracts a lot of foreign students because of its faculty, programmes, and international reputation.

The university now has a total enrollment of more than 13,000 students, making it Islamabad’s largest university as of 2015. On a campus of 1700 acres (or 6.9 km2) in the Margalla foothills, the university is located. QAU is one of Pakistan’s largest and top-ranked public universities, with four faculties and nine affiliated research institutes.

It has been able to forge connections with a few prestigious universities in Europe, South Asia, and the US. The Quaid-i-Azam University has collaborated with international educational and research institutions such as UNESCO, IRSIP, Agencia Espanola de Cooperación Internacional (Spain), and others, and its faculty members have worked at international universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, and Heidelberg, earning awards such as the Brussels International Peace Award.