Taseer’s death anniversary
LAHORE: The Ferozpur Road on Wednesday turned into a battlefield when the participants of a rally organized by a religious organization started throwing stones at the police to reach Liberty Roundabout where HR activists had gathered to hold a vigil on the sixth death anniversary of former governor Salmaan Taseer.
The police blocked all major and minor arteries by placing containers and used batons and teargas to disperse the protesters. They arrested the head of the organisation and over 100 clerics for creating a law and order situation in the metropolis.
Sources said the government got information about the protest against the vigils to be held on Taseer’s death anniversary at Liberty Roundabout and in other parts of the city. The law-enforcers and government representatives held dialogue with the leaders of religious parties, which continued till 11am. The dialogue failed and the religious leaders announced protest rallies in the city. They announced a rally from Firdos Market to Liberty Roundabout, following which the police started placing containers in areas including Ferozpur Road, Main Boulevard, Gulberg and Barkat Market. The protesters got furious and tried to reach the designated place in patches. They pelted stones at policemen who resorted to baton-charge. Dozens of protesters and policemen sustained minor injuries.
Senior officers including CCPO Amin Wains, DIG Dr Haider and DIG Traffic Mobeen remained on roads to handle the situation. All divisional SPs, SDPOs and SHOs were also called in to cope with the situation. The hide-and-seek continued between the police and the protesters till 8pm that created a severe traffic mess in the City. The Traffic DIG apologised to citizens over the bad traffic situation. He said traffic wardens performed duties for over 13 hours to divert traffic to alternative routes.
The containers were removed at 8pm and the traffic was restored. However, citizens were of the view that the government failed to maintain law and order. They said the government and law-enforcers should have handled the situation well. No FIR was registered till the filing of this report.
According to a statement by the City Traffic Police, the traffic system was agitated due to rallies and the citizens were disrupted. However, 2 SPs, 10 DSPs, 25 senior wardens and 1,600 wardens were additionally deployed to ensure smooth traffic flow. DIG Traffic Syed Ahmad Mobin visited many areas and cleared the traffic. The Metro Bus Service also remained suspended.
The DIG said whenever rallies and strikes were staged in the city, the traffic police had to face a lot of challenges, but the traffic flow was always maintained by additional staffers.
The worst traffic jam was witnessed on the Ferozpur Road and Jail Road where a large number of cars were seen lining up in queues. Similarly, a severe traffic mess was observed from Qartaba Chowk to The Mall. Traffic jams also became a reason for more fuel consumption that aggravated the anger of people. The situation caused a massive traffic mess on Ferozpur Road, Jail Road, Lytton Road, Bahawal Sher Road, Kutchery Road, The Mall and Anarkali as well.
The key roads were blocked due to security concerns and it increased traffic pressure on other routes, said a traffic warden, adding that they did their best to divert the traffic to alternative routes, but the situation turned more challenging when people left offices and a large number of vehicles clogged the roads. Over 3,000 police officials performed duty to maintain law and order in the city. Eight SPs, 40 DSPs and 87 SHOs were deployed to maintain law and order.