LAHORE: Senior students of National College of Arts threw water balloons full of chemicals and petrol at the university’s freshmen batch on Saturday. Ragging is a common practice in Pakistan, not only in colleges, schools but even in our universities, where senior students practice such behaviour. Some very sinister pranks were performed at NCA’s Campus on Saturday as a couple of senior students threw water at the college’s latest batch during their batch photo; as this is a ‘tradition’ followed by the college’s student body. More dangerous acts followed and some seniors took the concept of ‘ragging’ too far when they started throwing bags and balloons filled with printing chemical and petrol on the first year students; causing panic in the crowd as people started getting burnt and scarred by the potent chemicals and fumes. More than 20 students suffered from burn injuries, and had to be rushed to a nearby hospital. Ragging is known to be an integral part of NCA, which often leads to extremes like physical and even sexual assaults. I have taken the initiative to report this matter and I request the college’s administration to take appropriate steps and identify the involved students.