Saudi women injured in university protest
Saudi students attend the second International Conference and Exhibition on Higher Education, in Riyadh, on April 19, 2011.
Female students in Saudi Arabia are planning to skip classes in support of classmates who were injured during a protest earlier in the week.
The students from King Khalid University in Abha told Reuters about their plan by telephone Friday, the news agency reported. The students said their boycott is in response to the government's reaction to a demonstration by 8,000 students Wednesday.
Those students were protesting the university's failure to deal with a build up of trash on campus, Agence France-Presse said. The news agency described their demonstration as a sit-in.
One student told Reuters "Security forces entered the campus with sticks, threatening the students by banging them against chairs and desks."
Another said government officers "Later the forces used fire extinguishers on the girls."
At least 50 students were injured, Al Jazeera said.
A government spokesman told Reuters those injuries were minor.
Religious police said it had intervened but denied attacking students, the news agency said.
AFP said university officials accused the students of "shouting in a way that contradicts" school regulations.
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