JEDDAH, 31 May — Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmad has stressed the need for setting up a study to find out the reasons for the increasing campus violence.
The minister made the remarks while commenting on the gun attack by a student on a history professor at King Abdul Aziz University last Monday.
“Educational institutions are sacred places like mosques where weapons cannot be allowed. Steps should be taken to ensure that no one carries a weapon in the campus. We hope that there would be enough coordination and cooperation between the concerned agencies in universities and the police force to ensure this,” Okaz newspaper yesterday quoted the prince as saying.
He said a student of a higher institute of learning attacking a senior teacher is deplorablein itself. “We have to make sure that such outrages are not repeated in future,” he added.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Rabighi, supervisor in the history department at King Abdul Aziz University, was shot at by a graduate student, in the first such incident in a Saudi university. Dr. Al-Rabighi is currently recovering at the university hospital.
Prince Ahmad categorically ruled out the right to use weapons by anyone against another person under any circumstances “because the Kingdom has laws, which protect every citizen and expatriate resident and guarantee all his rights.”
Describing the attack as an isolated incident, the prince said, “We are sad about this strange and outrageous behavior from a student of higher studies against a member of the teaching staff. Investigations are under way to learn the circumstances and motives that led to this tragic crime.”
The prince added: “It is known that acts such as this happen in many other countries. The latest such incident was in Germany where a child gunned down a number of students in a school because he was denied admission there. The instances abound. These abnormal events do not come under any authority and there is no cause for fear or worry. However, lessons are to be learned from them to prevent their recurrence.”
The minister also pointed out that in some incidents, people were attacked while observing prayers in mosques or attending procedures in courts of law. “The place, time and circumstances may have some effect on the nature of the crime,” he said.
Prince Ahmad spoke about the need for imparting special training to the security guards at universities under the supervision of the Public Security Department.
