Islamabad: A female IT student from the
minority Ahmadi community in Pakistan has been expelled for
allegedly tearing up an anti-Ahamdi poster from the campus of
a leading technical institute.
Rabia Saleem, a student at Comsats Institute of
Information Technology in Lahore, was accused of blasphemy for
her action, with many co-students demanding her "head".
While the event was not reported by mainstream media,
according to ahmaddiyatimes.blogspot.com, Saleem tore up
an-anti Ahmadi poster pasted on campus.
"Rabia Saleem, a female Ahmadi student of the final year,
was accused of blasphemous actions by the student wing of a
terrorist organisation, Tahaffuz-e-Khatima-e-Nabuwwat...,"
read the post titled "Education institution Comsats harbours
extremists, expels Ahmadi student".
A hostel guard allegedly spotted Saleem removing the
poster and then accused her of blasphemy though there was no
Ayat or Hadith written on it, Al Ufaq, another online group,
quoted Saleem's fellow student as saying.
Rasheed Ahmed Khan, the registrar of the Comsats
Institute, has denied any connection between Saleem's faith
and her expulsion. "Rabia Saleem has been expelled for
violating the discipline of the institution and not complying
with the rules and regulation," Khan told Al Ufaq.
There have been several terrorist attacks on the Ahmadis
across Pakistan in the past two years, including an assault of
two mosques by militants that killed about 90 people.
Sadaf Mujeeb, a rights activist, called up Saleem's
university at least six times to take up the issue.
"I called them six time to ask them why they hadn't taken
any action against people putting up anti-Ahmadi posters
around the university, and to ask how what Rabia Saleem did
was being considered as anything other than courage and
integrity in the face of unrelenting, institution-sponsored
bullying," Mujeeb sdaid.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 27, 2011, 22:29