(Abdul Basit Alvi)
The episode at Sarhad University began with allegations that the Head of the Allied Health Sciences Department had, for months, engaged in unethical and unfair practices, allegedly protecting a favored group of students who cheated in examinations, copied assignments, and violated university rules without facing disciplinary action. Anonymous students who witnessed the situation described a normalized culture of favoritism and misconduct, while the university administration was reportedly aware of the problems but failed to take meaningful action. The situation reached a breaking point when the department head was accused of repeatedly teasing, pressuring, and harassing the Head of Student Affairs, a respected and principled woman who consistently enforced university rules and refused to facilitate or overlook academic and administrative misconduct. She eventually filed a formal complaint describing the alleged harassment and wider violations, prompting the administration to suspend the Head of Allied Health Sciences pending investigation and establish a high-level inquiry committee. Many saw the decision as a step toward justice and accountability, but it triggered protests by large numbers of students demanding the suspended official’s reinstatement. The Head of Student Affairs personally approached the protesters to explain the suspension and calm tensions, but the confrontation became increasingly hostile. One student allegedly put his hand around her neck and threatened, “Today we will ruin your honor.” Terrified for her life, she barely escaped the mob, while university guards were reportedly unable to protect her.
In her distress and immediate danger, the Head of Student Affairs called her husband, a commissioned Pakistan Army officer, for help. Shocked and enraged after learning that his wife had allegedly been physically threatened and humiliated, he acted on an instinctive desire to protect her, temporarily disregarding the professional protocols expected of an army officer. He neither contacted the local police nor brought troops or soldiers with him, instead going alone to the university despite the danger posed by the large, angry crowd. When he arrived, his tearful wife ran to him and pointed out the student she identified as the person who had grabbed her neck. The officer confronted the student, sternly questioned his sense of shame and decency, and lightly struck him a couple of times with his stick as a symbolic reprimand rather than a serious physical assault, intending to discipline him for disrespecting a woman and university authority. However, the students immediately treated the physical contact as a provocation, surrounding, shouting at, and pushing the officer while ignoring his attempts to explain and calm the situation. During the ensuing chaos, someone pushed the Head of Student Affairs, causing her to stumble, while two boys allegedly tried to grab her arms and pull her further into the confrontation. Seeing his wife in danger, the officer instinctively positioned himself as a human shield between her and the mob, but she nevertheless fell to the ground amid the turmoil. This marked a critical escalation from a tense confrontation into a full-blown crisis, with both the officer and his wife facing an increasingly aggressive and uncontrolled crowd.
Watching his wife fall to the ground and seeing his military uniform being deliberately torn by the aggressive mob, the Army officer lost all his remaining patience and composure. He perceived an immediate and grave danger to both his own life and the life of his wife, as the mob showed no signs of calming down and was becoming increasingly violent. In a moment of pure self-defense, he drew his service pistol and used it to push the crowd back, creating some much-needed space. He then fired shots in the air, a non-lethal warning meant to scare the frenzied crowd and make them retreat in fear. His intention was purely defensive; he was trying to create a buffer zone so that he and his wife could escape the immediate threat of being lynched by the mob. In his mind, this was the only option left to prevent a catastrophic outcome, as the mob was completely out of control and the university guards were nowhere to be seen. This is the full and true story of what transpired at the university, a story of injustice, courage, and a desperate act of self-preservation.
Many people who have examined the facts of the case argue that the military officer is not wrong in this situation. He was acting on a fundamental and universally recognized instinct to defend his honor and the safety of his family, which is something that any reasonable person can understand and relate to. What would have happened if she had reported it to the police and the police would have been reached late? The situation was so volatile and rapidly deteriorating that any delay in intervention could have been absolutely catastrophic, leading to serious injury or even death. If his intention was to brutally torture the students, he could have easily brought many soldiers with him to unleash a coordinated and overwhelming attack. But his intention was only to reprimand the young man, to remind him that there are no mothers and sisters in your house that you would treat with such disrespect and violence. He arrived alone, armed only with a simple stick, which clearly shows that his intent was to correct and discipline, not to massacre or cause widespread harm.
Unfortunately, a few elements with vested interests and hidden agendas manipulated the whole incident and portrayed it in a completely wrong and misleading way. They selectively edited videos and circulated narratives that painted the army officer as the primary aggressor and the students as innocent victims of state violence. But the reality is quite different from this manipulated portrayal. In fact, the Army officer responded in a very measured and self-controlled way and did not harm anyone in a significant manner. If anyone else would have been there in place of that Army officer, there would have been a huge bloodshed and multiple casualties, given the level of aggression displayed by the mob. But the Army officer acted very wisely and with remarkable restraint, using his firearm only as a deterrent and firing shots only into the air. A few elements used this tragic incident to spread hate against the Pakistan Army on social media platforms, but the people of Pakistan know the reality and are not easily fooled by such propaganda. They know that the Pak Army, its officers, and its soldiers are our guardians and protectors, not our enemies. The propaganda against the Pak Army has been badly exposed for what it is, and the love and respect for the Pak Army in the public has further increased as a result of this incident. The army itself has ordered a full inquiry into the matter and has taken the officer into custody, demonstrating a commitment to accountability that should be lauded by all. This commitment to justice, even when it involves its own members, is what truly sets a great institution apart from those who act with impunity and disregard for the law.
