Conflict Over Ideology Produces Violence in a Pakistan University

Pakistan's largest university is experiencing some unrest following a turnover in the country's political leadership. After over three decades of control by a series of militaristic regimes, Pakistan has a newly-elected civilian government that is working to make changes in the university system (as well as in the country-at-large).
One such change is the removal of a ban on student political organizations in universities that has been in place nearly continuously since the mid-1980s. For this reason, more liberal student groups and practices began to crop up in Pakistani universities, making many uneasy. In particular, the University of the Punjab has dealt with violent outbursts against students belonging to the new liberal groups.
The new vice-chancellor of the University of the Punjab, Mujahid Kamran, believes that the violence is issuant from an Islamist student group called Islami Jamiat Talaba. This group thrived at the University of the Punjab during the time of the aforementioned ban; by naming itself a religious rather than a political organization, IJT was allowed to continue operating on the university campus. IJT's "parent group", Jamaat-e-Islami, is Pakistan's "oldest religious political party". Administrators at the University of the Punjab say that allies and members of IJT had assumed key roles in the running of the university, using their position to disseminate their group's message.
Now that Pakistan's new elected government is allowing the formation of other student groups, the establishment of IJT at U Punjab is weakening. Also, violence has been perpetrated against members of the more liberal groups, who have been beaten and shot. IJT has been implicated in the violence, though leaders of the group "say they are not violent". One of these leaders, Qasar Sharif, has been quoted as saying, "We have an ideology, and everybody [at the university] is with us. The ideology is of Islam, and to help the students be together, without any division."

Problems arise when individuals and groups have conflict concerning beliefs or interests important to themselves or their groups. This is especially problematic when the sacred space of interaction overlaps with the secular space. In such a case, genuinely held religious beliefs necessarily have implications for political structuring, and vice versa. If this is so, the interests of the religiously oriented individual/group will be inextricably tied to its beliefs concerning the nature of things, which in turn determines the group's political interests. This makes for people whose political affiliation/identity is interchangeable with their religious affiliation/identity. When people traditionally oriented in this way are asked to act politically without acting religiously (and vice versa), it is difficult for these people to re-orient themselves toward doing so. (And should they even be asked to?) This sort of thing is apt to occur with people of any religious affiliation, not just adherents to Islam.