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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The House of Representatives’ motion for airline operators to compensate passengers for flight cancellations and delays is a significant development.

In Nigeria, passengers already have some protection under the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCAR) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA 2018).

Passenger Rights in Nigeria

•⁠ ⁠For flight cancellations, passengers are entitled to a refund within seven days.
•⁠ ⁠For domestic flights, passengers must be informed at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure to avoid compensation.
•⁠ ⁠For international flights, the notice period is seven days.
•⁠ ⁠Passengers are also entitled to refreshments after two hours and reimbursement after three hours for domestic flight delays.

Global Precedents

Other countries have implemented similar measures. For instance, the US Department of Transportation has issued a final rule requiring airlines to provide automatic refunds for canceled or significantly changed flights, significantly delayed checked bags, and extra services not provided.

This motion by the House of Representatives aims to strengthen passenger rights and hold airline operators accountable for flight disruptions.

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