Students rally against fellows’ detention

JALALABAD (PAN): Hundreds of university students on Monday staged a protest against the detention of 23 fellows by intelligence officials in eastern Nangarhar province.

The Nangarhar University students blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway for traffic for several hours, accusing security forces of killing two of their colleagues, who were arrested a month ago.

A law student, Khalilullah, said the two students had gone on vacation to their home provinces of Maidan Wardak and Khost, where they were killed by security forces.

He could not provide any reason for the killings. “We want the murders to be tried and all our 23 detained fellows freed as soon as possible,” he demanded.

A student union leader, Omar, warned if the students were not released, they would continue to protest.

He accused a powerful lawmaker, Haji Abdul Zahir, of illegally occupying a building belonging to the education faculty. He said most of students hailed from other provinces and were in dire need of housing facility.

Qadir, the Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) deputy speaker, refused to comment on the issue, but his party’s deputy chairman Ibrarullah Murad said they had established an institute called “Rana” in the building after reaching an understanding with the university administration.

“We have invested a lot of capital in the building, imparting free education to the people over the past 10 years,” the Peace Caravan Party official explained.

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