KARACHI: Thousands of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) protesters continued to block highways across Pakistan for a third consecutive day on Saturday as part of the party's 'Plan-B'.
Hub River Road, which connects Karachi to Balochistan, remained closed for heavy traffic. Police said traffic was diverted to Northern Bypass from Hub Toll Plaza.
Similarly, the JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) workers were also staging a sit-in at Dera Ismail Khan National Highway in Balochistan’s Zhob district, suspending all the vehicular traffic.
The sit-in has cut off contact between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where passenger buses and cargo trucks have been stuck in large numbers.
The JUI-F workers have also been protesting on the GT Road after pitching tents in Malakand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Protests and road blockades are also continuing in other parts of the country.
In Mansehra, the JUI-F activists allowed motorists to move ahead to their respective destinations at Karakorum Highway after they stormed their sit-in.
The angry motorists and local passengers, who remained stranded for hours in their vehicles at KKH in Ghazikot area, stormed the sit-in staged by the JUI-F activists, led by JUI-F district head Mufti Kifayatullah, and as a result four people sustained minor injuries in the stampede. An eyewitness told reporters that baton-wielding Ansarul Islam activists forcibly pushed angry motorists and locals, causing minor injuries to four persons.
The JUI-F re-established their blockade after allowing passengers and motorists in Ghazikot area to move to their respective destinations. The JUI-F activists also blocked Karakoram Highway in Kohistan, causing inconvenience to motorists travelling between KP and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Mufti Kifayatullah told reporters that whatever his party was doing under its Plan-B was in large public interest. "We are in streets to get rid of a fascist government, which has plunged the country into economic turmoil and people can't even get their basic necessities because of high inflation in the country," said Kifayatullah.