The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s fact-finding mission on Friday said it could not find “credible evidence” regarding the alleged rape of a student at a private college in Lahore which led to widespread student protests in October.
Last month, reports related to the alleged rape of a private college student went viral on social media, prompting the police to arrest a security guard at the college who was allegedly involved in the incident.
Enraged by the alleged incident, students mobilised on social media and staged protests outside different colleges in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.
In a report, HRCP said that it was “not possible to conclusively establish the veracity of widespread allegations that a student was sexually assaulted at a private college in Lahore earlier in October 2024”.
Regarding the allegations, the report said that “a chain of events appears to have created acute suspicion and mistrust among students at Punjab College Campus 10. These events include a spate of social media content making unverified claims of rape, contradictory statements by government representatives”.
Additionally, the mission “strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against hundreds of students at Campus 10 on 14 October, who had launched a mass protest demanding ‘justice’ for the alleged victim of rape but were subjected to police violence”.
However, it cautioned that there was evidence of other parties attempting “to hijack the students’ narrative and use it to amplify their own outreach on social media”.
“The mission observes that students’ response underlines their serious dissatisfaction with the state of security on campuses and perceived frequency of sexual harassment and victim blaming,” the statement read, adding that this was made worse by a lack of motivation of the college administration to address the issue and a “deep mistrust” of the police.
The report highlighted that the “damage wrought by pervasive misinformation is grounds for strong, regular public campaigns on digital literacy and fact-checking”, however adding that the students’ frustration should not be discounted because of the apparent role of misinformation.
Among other recommendations, the report suggested a thorough investigation of the CCTV footage of Lahore’s Campus 10 over the first two weeks of October.
It also recommended “holding the police accountable for violence against student protesters as well as for detaining a person accused of the alleged offence in the absence of an FIR against him”.
Earlier, the police and the Punjab government, following an investigation, maintained that the incident never occurred.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz went on to claim that Imran Khan’s PTI was behind instigating students on social media to create a law and order situation in the country.
