LPU dismisses classes for 10 days amidst protest; Students claim outsiders role in vandalism

Regular classes at Lovely Professional University have been suspended for 10 days as of September 27, and the mid-term examinations have been postponed until further notice. The administration took these steps following 2 days of protests at the university campus. Students are leaving the campus for their homes, many of them shaken by what they witnessed overnight.

Speaking to The Pioneer, students at the university said trouble began on September 25th after female students approached their warden. The students complained that their roommate was sexually assaulted by a male service staff at the hostel. The students alleged that no action was taken post their complaint. The LPU administration has denied that a student of theirs has been sexually assaulted inside the university premises.   

The protests that began on September 26 continued to September 27. Students say the protest held on September 26th mostly had students of the university demanding action from the administration. However, some students said, those who were not part of the university also joined the protest and that led to the protest escalating. 

“Masked men carrying weapons, none of them from the university, entered the crowd posing as students and began vandalising property, “ said a 3rd year student from LPU who did wish to be named. The videos now viral on social media show people vandalising university premises. The student said most people shown on these videos are not students, “They are outsiders” she added, 

On the night of September 27, the situation turned deadly. According to the statements made by several students, two hostel blocks, 26 and 27, caught fire at ground level. 

“The goons went to the administration block and burned official documents and they were carrying knives and guns,” said the student.

“They entered the girls' hostel, knocked on doors and demanded that the girls come out. Girls were followed and dragged on the campus by the goons”, another 3rd year student from LPU University told The Pioneer. 

According to the videos and voice recordings circulating amongst student groups, recordings capture them saying they were hiding in unfamiliar rooms, frightened and not knowing what to do. 

Police had lathi-charged the crowd on September 27 and it had begun to disperse, students say, but the men returned, gunshots were heard, and fires broke out across the campus. They say the administration could not act, that jammers were installed to stop information from leaving, and that CRPF and an SPG commander were brought in.

Punjab Police deployed more than 2,000 personnel, and DGP Gaurav Yadav said a Special Investigation Team is examining the involvement of outsiders after walkie-talkies were recovered on campus. Police also carried out a flag march to reassure students and families.

The university's own account has been very different. LPU has denied that any such incident occurred and called the circulating reports false and fabricated. Its registrar, Monica Gulati, appeared in a video on September 27 on the university's main social media account, saying anti-social elements were spreading "false, baseless and fabricated" claims. 

In the clip, three girls in room GH 3 504 say nothing has happened there, that they have lived in the room for two months, and asked the students to stop knocking on their door.

The girls later made another video showing otherwise which quickly went viral. They said they had no idea their clip had been posted on the university's main page. They said that they had been picked from random hostel rooms and told to say whatever the organisation asked, and that their videos were trimmed in ways they never saw, without their consent.