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Pakistani Student Accused Of Killing Professor Over Coed Party


Pakistani activists at a rally for women's rights on International Women's Day in Lahore on March 8.
Pakistani activists at a rally for women's rights on International Women's Day in Lahore on March 8.

A student in Pakistan has stabbed and killed a professor for allegedly planning a party to which both men and women would be invited.

The student, Khateeb Hussain, was arrested on March 20 after being held at the scene of the incident by fellow students.

Police said he would be charged with murder.

English professor Khalid Hameed, of Sadiq Egerton College in the eastern city of Bahawalpur, was preparing a farewell party for his students when Hussain allegedly attacked him with a dagger, a police official said.

"Apparently the accused has no link to any religious group, but we are investigating his past and the reasons behind his mind-set," local police spokesman Farhan Hussain said.

A police report quoted the accused as saying that "the gender mix reception is against the teachings of Islam, and I had warned him to stop it."

Hameed died of his injuries at a local hospital.

The director of the college, Wali Muhammad, told Reuters news agency that the college had a majority-female student population, with 4,000 women studying alongside 2,000 men. The slain professor was due to retire in four months.

Religion and gender issues are volatile topics in Pakistan, where many Islamic fundamentalists view women's rights as heretical.

In 2018, a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll found Pakistan the sixth-most-dangerous country in the world for women.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
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