Aasia Bibi’s acquittal: Motorway blocked, roads closed in KP

PESHAWAR: The motorway remained blocked while traffic was suspended on many roads in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as religious parties took to streets to protest the acquittal of Aasia Bibi.

However, the law and order in KP, remained under control as no group took law into their hands by burning or attacking vehicles and public properties.

The motorway between Peshawar and Islamabad remained blocked almost the whole day on Friday after the religious parties had announced carrying out rallies and blocking roads to protest the release of Aasia Bibi.

The Grand Trunk Road that connects Peshawar with Punjab and the rest of the country was also blocked during the day.

The workers of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious groups held rallies and blocked roads in Chowk Yadgar, Ashraf Road and the Hospital Road outside Ander Shehr.

Three separate rallies were held in the vicinity in which the speakers condemned the release of Aasia Bibi by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Protests were also held in Charsadda, Battagram, Mansehra, Haripur, Dir and other districts. However, the protesters remained peaceful and did not take law into their hands.

“Apart from a couple of big rallies, most of the protests were by a few dozens of locals in seven districts of the province. This affected the flow of traffic in some areas but the overall situation remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the province,” spokesman for the KP Police, Waqar Ahamd, told The News.

About the motorway, the official said the entry lane to the motorway from Peshawar was blocked by the officials only to avoid inconvenience to the commuters while lane for vehicles coming from different cities to Peshawar was open.