I want to bring the attention of the authorities concerned to extremism at the campus of Peshawar University. On Monday I visited the university's central library where I was surprised to see newspapers and magazines of banned organizations duly stamped by the librarian, with the instructions that they should not be torn since they belong to the library.
The newspaper was Zarb-i-Momin while the literature was about Rasheed Trust. These papers and magazines, which are promoting extremism, are banned by the government because they are full of hatred.
After that I visited the libraries of other institutions and some of the offices of the teaching staff, including professors and administrative staff. I was surprised to see that a majority of educational institutes were full of materials which could promote sectarian conflict at the peaceful university campus.
The most alarming thing was that, when I visited Agriculture University, some students told me that Commander Ashfaq, head of the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, was officially invited by the university administration for a Friday sermon and he spoke for an hour, inviting young people to participate in jihad.
Everyone is aware that the so-called version of jihad used by these banned organizations is not against non-Muslims but is against fellow Muslims who belong to different sects. The silence of the university's administration and the government in this regard is incomprehensible.
The government should take strict
measures by punishing those responsible for the propagation of extremism
at the university campus, Peshawar.