Pakistani police fired tear gas and charged at student protesters who ransacked a college building Thursday, as anger spread over an alleged on-campus rape.

Tensions have been high on college campuses since reports about the alleged rape in the eastern city of Lahore went viral on social media, and protests have broken out in four cities so far.

The latest violence started when hundreds of students demonstrated outside a campus in the city of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They burned furniture and blocked a key road in the city, disrupting traffic, before ransacking a college building. Police responded by swinging batons and firing tear gas to disperse them, police official Mohammad Afzal said. In a statement, police said they arrested 150 students on charges of disrupting the peace.

In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard died in clashes between student protesters and police on Wednesday. The police have arrested someone in connection with the death.

They also arrested a man who is accused of spreading misinformation on social media about the alleged rape and inciting students to violence.

Earlier this week, more than two dozen college students were injured in clashes with police in Lahore after they rallied to demand justice for the victim, who they alleged was raped on campus at the Punjab Group of Colleges.

Authorities, including the province’s chief minister and the college administration, denied there was an assault, as did the young woman’s parents.

Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan, but it is underreported because of the stigma attached to it in the conservative country. Protests about sexual violence against women are uncommon.

Hasna Cheema, from the rights group Aurat Foundation, said neither Pakistani police nor the media were trained to handle such sensitive matters.

“They turn things from bad to worse instead of solving them,” Cheema said.

The Sustainable Social Development Organization said last month that there were 7,010 rape cases reported in Pakistan in 2023, almost 95% of them in Punjab.

“However, due to social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage women from getting help, there is a high chance that due to underreporting the actual number of cases may be even higher,” it said.

This week’s protests come less than a month after a woman said she was gang-raped while on duty during a polio vaccination drive in southern Sindhprovince.

Police arrested three men. Her husband threw her out of the house after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the family name.

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Don Jazzy donates a whopping sum of N100 million to VeryDarkMan’s NGO.

North Korea is supplying Russia not only with weapons but also with people, including those employed in Russian factories, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, urging Ukraine’s partners to increase their support.

And with reports of North Korean boots on the ground, in fact, Pyongyang has actually entered the war against Ukraine.

“In the coalition of criminals alongside Putin, North Korea is already involved, specifically the Kim family, which enslaves over 20 million people in North Korea,” Zelenskyy stated, addressing the Parliament in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“Our intelligence has observed not only the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia but also the transfer of individuals. These individuals are workers sent to Russian factories to replace those killed in the war, as well as personnel for the Russian army.”

And it’s not just Pyongyang, it’s also Tehran, according to Zelenskyy.

“Everyone sees its regime’s support for Putin,” he said.

Why would Russia need North Korean soldiers, and where?

Ukrainian outlet The Kyiv Independent, citing Western sources, reported that North Korea has sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia to boost its war efforts against Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Russian 11th Airborne Brigade is forming a 3,000-person “battalion” staffed with North Korean citizens, according to Ukrainian outlets Suspilne and Liga, citing anonymous military intelligence sources.

Where could they be deployed?

Ukrainian intelligence sources assessed that this “battalion” will likely be involved in ongoing Russian defensive operations in the Kursk region.

Earlier, the Ukrainian partisan movement claimed that it had identified the presence of North Korean military personnel in training areas located close to Mariupol.

Euronews could not independently verify these claims.

The US-based ISW think tank says it has recently observed reports that a small contingent of North Korean personnel was operating near occupied Donetsk City.

The Kremlin is likely leveraging the Russia-North Korea comprehensive strategic partnership agreement made in June, in part to offset Russian force generation and border security requirements, according to the ISW.

This might help further cement Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commitment to avoiding mobilisation for as long as possible.

“Putin appears more willing to absorb North Korean personnel into the Russian military and resort to other irregular force generation efforts than to call for a wider mobilisation to actually address the combat situation,” ISW added.