December 12, 2024
By Nadeem Khan
QUETTA
Saima, who hails from the Makran district of Balochistan, has been forced to continue her medical studies while sitting in a protest camp set up outside Quetta’s Bolan Medical College.
A month ago, following a clash between student organisations, the police conducted a crackdown on the Bolan Medical College hostel. As a result, the medical college and hostels were closed down. Responding to the college and hostel closure, a student alliance has been maintaining a protest camp for the past 15 days.
“When you are pursuing an MBBS degree, for you even a month matters,” Saima tells Voicepk. She says how the hostel would have provided her with a more conducive environment for her studies compared to her home or any other place.
“But the library where most students go to study for their professional examinations has now been closed along with the hostel,” she says.
Out of the four girls’ hostels in the medical college, authorities have sealed three of them. The students are resisting the closure of the fourth hostel, but the authorities keep sending women police constables there to intimidate them.
“The college administration has even sent notices to the parents of the female students to vacate the sealed hostels,” says Saima, adding that it would be next to impossible for the students to prepare for their exams at home.
Bolan Medical College, the largest medical college in the province, holds significant importance in student politics. The number of students enrolled at Bolan Medical College is approximately 2,000, with over 1,000 residing in the hostels. The onset of winter has led to a drop in Quetta’s temperature to near freezing point. But the students are continuing with their protests despite the harsh and cold weather. Police authorities tell Voicepk that many students were illegally occupying hostel rooms, and that the hostels would be reopened after completing the registration of only those students who have registered.
Meanwhile, student organisations do not agree with the stance of the police.
Azhar Baloch, the General Secretary of the Baloch Students’ Action Committee, accuses the government of ethnic profiling and harassing students without any valid reason.
“This is not the first or the last time that Bolan Medical College and its hostels have been shut down, but it is now part of the government’s policy of militarising educational institutions in Balochistan by deploying paramilitary and police personnel on the campuses,” he says. “Some years ago, we saw the deployment of Frontier Corps (FC) troops being deployed on the campus of the Balochistan University, the setting up of check posts, and the closure of the hostel of the Science College too.”
According to Azhar Baloch, the closure of the hostel of the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering, and Management Sciences, and the surveillance of students through the closed-circuit cameras installed on the campus is just another example of ‘government policy’.
“The government is using different excuses like student clashes, security issues, and the presence of ‘outsiders’ on the campuses, to deploy troops in educational institutions to profile and harass Baloch students there,” he alleges.
He rejected police claims that the hostels were being used for illegal and terror activities, saying those staying in the hostels were bona fide students.
“This is another lame excuse to keep the medical college and its hostels closed as we have been seeing for the past many years,” he adds. According to the students, the protests will continue until the hostel is reopened and an inquiry is conducted against the police.