KARACHI, Aug 24: The Sindh government has closed the Sunday book bazaar on the lawns of the nineteenth-century Frere Hall at the request of the US consul-general.

Sindh home minister Aftab Shaikh told Dawn on Sunday that the decision to close the weekly book bazaar had been taken to provide maximum security to the US consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road and the residence of the US consul-general on Fatima Jinnah Road.

“Frere Hall is very close to the US consulate and the residence of the US consul-general, who expressed reservations about security arrangements in the locality. There is such a large crowd at the Sunday book bazaar on the lawns of Frere Hall that it is very difficult to tighten up security in an effective manner. The Sindh government, therefore, decided to close the Sunday book bazaar,” he said.

Mr Shaikh promised that the Sindh government would give booksellers another place to hold a bazaar on Sundays.

City government officials told Dawn on Sunday that they had not been intimated about the closure of the Sunday book bazaar.

They added that they had no idea why the police had not allowed booksellers to come to Frere Hall and set up their stalls.

Interestingly, policemen standing guard around Frere Hall told visitors that the place had been cordoned off because the president was in town.

At least 53 booksellers set up their stalls on the lawns of the Frere Hall every Sunday. Since the Sunday bazaar was the largest selling spot of second-hand books in the city, thousands of book lovers visited it every week, some along with their families. The booksellers organized the book bazaar on a self-help basis by dividing among themselves the expenditure of furniture and electricity.

A senior bookseller of the Sunday book bazaar, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that booksellers had carted heavy books to the Frere Hall on Sunday morning only to find that police had cordoned off the place.

He said it was beyond him why the book bazaar had been closed because of the presence of the president in the city. “In the past, the police never cordoned off Frere Hall even when the president was in town. The Sunday book bazaar was closed from July 14, 2002 to Oct 20, 2002 in the aftermath of the bomb blast in front of the US consulate. It was also partly closed on March 2, 2003, when the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had brought out a processionto condemn the US military action against Iraq,” he recalled.