Phagwara, 30 September 2026: A violent uprising at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, Punjab has left the campus and the commercial properties of the university and even the university's Uni Mall damaged in many shops in the vicinity of the university in the past few months.
The looted items were Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, mobile phones and laptops, electronic devices, perfumes and cash. But shops selling books and stationery in Phagwara, the home of many universities, are still open in the wake of so much damage so the contrast is so striking that it has attracted much attention.
The Uni Mall is situated on the LPU campus, where students and other members of the university community shop. During the unrest, some electronics and other retail stores were actually broken into with damaged glass counters, empty shelves and merchandise missing, as reported in the aftermath. Videos circulating on the Web also showed people walking away from the stores.
PlayStation 5 consoles, mobile phones and laptops were among the high-value items stolen, shopkeepers said. Store staff said new products and devices customers had left behind to repair were also stolen by some shops. An electronics shopkeeper said his losses were estimated to be more than ₹50 lakh and a possible overall loss of ₹80-90 lakh for some affected businesses was also estimated at the time of writing although the final damage assessment was still being done.
Luxury goods were also targeted. High-end perfumes such as Prada and Armani are said to have disappeared from stores. Some of these perfumes are said to be priced at ₹15,000 to ₹17,000 each, the report says. Cash was also taken from some businesses, adding to the losses suffered by shopkeepers.
The contrast between the bookstores and stationery shops in the mall has been one of the most unusual aspects of the incident. Some electronics and lifestyle stores were reported to have been vandalised and looted but books and stationery were largely left alone, an official in the mall said.
The violence took place amid protests at LPU during the weekend. The unrest was triggered by the safety of a female student at LPU. Police registered a case and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the allegations and the violence. LPU has rejected the charges that triggered the unrest as false and fabricated, and the investigation into the original claims and the violence on the ground is ongoing.
Identities of the individuals involved in the Uni Mall looting have not been confirmed. Students have been involved and maybe outsiders have been involved, according to reports. The university authorities are currently reviewing CCTV footage and other evidence to find people who would have done so. Hence the thefts should not be attributed to LPU students without any proof of individual responsibility.
The damage at Uni Mall has been worrying to shopkeepers who run their own businesses on the university premises. Shopkeepers are wondering who will cover the losses of the vandalism and theft. Broken glass, damaged counters, lost surveillance equipment and stolen merchandise are the challenges faced by businesses when they begin to assess their losses.
There were also reports that items beyond high-value electronics were taken in the chaos, like food items, sweets, courier consignments and smaller retail items. CCTV footage from some parts of the mall also showed people breaking into stores and getting rid of things, which investigators could likely take as evidence as they try to figure out what happened and who was responsible.
The LPU incident has also created new questions about campus security, commercial establishments and the impact of violence on them if it happens. The Uni Mall serves students and staff as well as independent commercial interests. So there are actual losses beyond university property to individual shop owners and employees for whom they have to depend on these businesses.
🚨 PS5s, phones, laptops, high-end perfumes have been looted from LPU's Uni Mall during the violent protests but book stores remain untouched. 🙏🏽
— Indian Tech & Infra (@IndianTechGuide) September 30, 2026
(India Today) pic.twitter.com/z0otUeOPnZ
In the meantime, police will look at CCTV recordings, identify those believed to have vandalized and stolen things and calculate the financial impact of the damage. Meanwhile, the sight of expensive electronics and luxury products being taken from stores, when compared to the largely untouched bookstores, has become one of the most well-known aspects of the LPU Uni Mall incident.
Such protests often turn into vandalism or looting and that can have far-reaching repercussions beyond the original dispute. Businesses, employees, students and institutions can have a lot to lose and investigations can take time to determine who is responsible for what.
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