Authorities in Pakistan’s most populous province have ordered all educational institutes shut as student-led protests grow after allegations of rape on a college campus.

The interior department in Punjab province also banned gatherings on Friday and Saturday.

The closure is expected to affect about 26 million children in addition to adult learners in the eastern province.

Rawalpindi police officer Syed Khalid Mehmood Hamdani told the AFP news agency on Friday that 380 people had been arrested over vandalism and arson during protests in the city the previous day and investigations were ongoing.

“We will track down people from social media,” he said.

Protests broke out in the provincial capital Lahore last week after social media reports spread that a female student was raped in the basement of the Punjab College for Women campus.

Police arrested a security guard who was identified in online posts but said no victim had come forward and that they had not been able to verify the rape allegation.

The protests have since spread to campuses across Lahore as well as the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where police fired tear gas and charged at the students, who have accused the authorities of a cover-up.

Students hurl stones at security personnel during a demonstration to condemn the alleged rape of a female student, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on October 17, 2024 [Ghulam Rasool/AFP]

Hundreds of students were arrested in various cities for blocking roads, injuring security personnel, and vandalism.

The protests reflect a deep concern among Pakistani students over safety, harassment, and sexual assault against women at colleges, as well as mistrust in authorities.

Authorities said an investigation team formed to probe the allegations found no evidence of rape and cast doubt over the motives behind the protests.

“The incident does not exist,” Arif Chaudry, the Lahore director of the private Punjab Group of Colleges that runs the women’s college, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

“I will resign and I will leave this profession and stand with the students if the incident took place.”

The chief minister of the province, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, said those who spread the false posts would be punished.

The Progressive Students Collective, one of the groups calling for protests, demanded the formation of a committee that includes independent human rights organisations, student representatives and judges.