28 September, 2026 – Jalandhar : The sequence of incidents that led to a massive damage of property and a show of lawlessness at Lovely Professional University on Sunday has left several observers including the campus authorities, staff, students, politicians and even media completely baffled. A question that everyone is asking is whether it was a plain rumour, tasked outsiders or political rivalry of the LPU owners that led to the daylong mayhem.
The students, authorities and even the police do not rule out the presence of outsiders at the campus. Majority of them are of the opinion that it was a part of a design to target the LPU, whose Chancellor Ashok Mittal had left AAP to join the BJP few months back.
Even a day after lodging of an FIR of rape of an “unknown girl” against “unknown persons”, there has been no clue to the matter. Even though a Special Investigation Team had been announced to work on the issue, DIG Jalandhar Range Naveen Singla after Sunday’s investigation at the campus and checking of girls’ hostels had maintained around last midnight that “it was just a rumour and that there seemed to be no basis for it”.
The onlookers also feel that there is a clear pattern of how an unverified report had been jeopardised the peace at both the campuses – Chitkara University and LPU – just in a gap of a night. While the Chitkara University issue did not last long, the LPU issue took over 22 hours to settle. Cops from four police districts of Punjab – Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar Rural and Jalandhar Commissionerate Police remained present in large numbers as the students refused to vacate the National Highway. Police vehicles were set on fire, glass bottles were hurled, admission block entrance was damaged all in heavy police presence last night.
The LPU authorities have reportedly also taken up with the police that when the NH was initially jammed by students around 4 am and they had been successfully evicted by the police at 6 am, how could they let them sit back again and let it remain blocked right till the midnight. There have been allegations against the police on prolonging the matter and taking over 22 hours to broker peace between the students and the LPU authorities.
SSP Kapurthala Gaurav Toora had on Sunday evening maintained that there are serious mistrust issues between the students and authorities which were not getting settled from either side. The students too have hinted that the incidents of suicides at the campus in the past and the way the cases were hushed up had bottled up some sentiments against the authorities. “But we never intended to devastate our own campus like the way it happened yesterday. Laptops, mobile phones, garments and eatables were shop-lifted from the Uni Mall and several other kiosks. There certainly were some masked outsiders who did it all. We could never go to such an extent. They even damaged several CCTVs and set some DVRs on fire”, they said.
A high intensity of violence, huge daylong unrest and its coverage by national media for the whole day yesterday has also worried the students. “Our placement graph will surely fall. Unless the authorities do something really big to revive the image of LPU, our future remains at stake”, they said.
The worries over deteriorating law and order situation have also surely compounded for the BJP authorities, who have been making elaborate arrangements for the rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah just 1.5 km away from the LPU campus on Phagwara-Jalandhar highway. The occurrence of violence just three days ahead of Shah’s visit are also being reviewed as “inter-linked”.
The Tribune