Lovely Professional University (LPU) founder, chancellor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ashok Mittal on Thursday, 1 October 2026, alleged that the violent protests on the LPU campus in Kapurthala district, Punjab, were part of a larger conspiracy targeting the state's security and economic stability. Mittal said the incident — triggered by false rumours spread on the social media platform Reddit — followed a strikingly similar pattern to an earlier episode at Chitkara University, raising what he called urgent questions about coordinated instigation.

What Triggered the Violence

According to reports, violence erupted on the LPU campus after rumours circulated on Reddit claiming that a girl had been raped and had died by suicide. The unverified claims quickly spread among students, sparking protests that escalated into vandalism, arson, and property damage. A stretch of the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway was also blocked during the unrest.

Authorities noted that when pressed to provide details — including the identity of any alleged victim, the location of the reported incident, or a formal written complaint — no verifiable information could be furnished. Officials and university management have attributed much of the destruction to 'outsiders' and 'anti-social elements' who allegedly entered the campus during the commotion.

Mittal Flags a Coordinated Pattern

'A false rumour spread in Punjab through a social media platform that a girl had been raped and had committed suicide, along with other such claims. What was the conspiracy behind it, how were the students instigated, and how did outside elements subsequently enter the situation and damage the entire university?' Mittal said, adding that the sequence of events pointed to a 'very big conspiracy.'

He drew a direct parallel with the Chitkara University incident, which reportedly occurred on Friday-Saturday night just days earlier. 'The same Reddit platform was used. The same medium was used at both places, and similar things were said. There too, it was said that two girls had committed suicide,' he said. The back-to-back incidents — at Chitkara first, then at LPU — suggested to him a deliberate, patterned approach to inciting campus unrest.

Security Concerns and the Pakistan Angle

Mittal escalated his remarks to frame the episode as a matter of state-level security, noting that Punjab is a border state sharing its boundary with Pakistan. 'Pakistan continues to disrupt peace within our nation in some way or another,' he said, though he stopped short of directly attributing the conspiracy to any specific external actor. He stressed that investigators must determine 'whether the conspiracy was formed outside Punjab or inside Punjab.'

He also highlighted that LPU operates one of the most fortified campus security systems in the country — including facial recognition entry systems and automated boom barriers for vehicles. 'Despite all this, if such an incident happened there, then how safe are we? This is a question in the heart of every Punjabi today,' he said.

Economic Damage and Broader Impact

Beyond the security dimension, Mittal argued that the violence was a calculated strike at Punjab's economy. In an earlier statement, he said that LPU's enrolment of students from outside the state contributes directly to the state's revenue, and that the attack was 'an attempt to dismantle that economic contribution to Punjab.' He cited an already-stressed environment in the state — characterised by drug addiction, gang crime, kidnappings, and a general sense of insecurity among businessmen — as the backdrop against which this incident must be understood.

'It is a matter of security of the three crore people living in Punjab,' he said. He added that Punjab's business community is 'feeling very unsafe,' and that incidents like this compound existing anxieties.

What Happens Next

Investigations are ongoing into both the origin of the rumours and the identity of those who entered the campus and caused damage. The coordinated nature of the alleged disinformation — using the same platform, the same narratives, at two universities within days — is expected to draw scrutiny from both state police and possibly central agencies. Mittal has called for the conspiracy to be 'curbed,' though no formal demands for a central investigation have been publicly detailed as of now.