PESHAWAR, Feb 7: The shopkeepers association of Bilour Plaza, the main centre for cell phones business staged a protest demonstration against the alleged highhandedness of local police and blocked city's main Saddar Road.

The mobile phone dealers chanted anti-police slogans and demanded that the government should take stern action against police constables who insulted a shopkeeper over a minor issue.

Haji Waheed Gul, the pattern in chief of Peshawar Mobile Trading Association (PMTA), who runs his business at Skyper Communication said that a police constable Habib of West Cantonment police station manhandled him. He said that the cop came to his shop along with an Afghan friend Rafi. He added that the constable scuffled with him after exchange of harsh words on a pity business dispute.

He said that the cop forced him and other shopkeepers to deal the issue out of way and on their refusal he manhandled the shopkeepers and left the shop.

But, soon after an assistant sub-inspector of the same police station rushed to his shop and tried to arrest him. Which, he said, provoked other shopkeepers and they immediately closed their shops and started protest.

Abdul Qahar Bangash, president of the PMTA said that the shopkeepers of the plaza said that the cop refused to resolve the issue and wanted to exploit the situation and threatened the shopkeepers. He praised Station Head Officer Banaras Khan for solving the problem of the shopkeepers when he came to know about the protest. He maintained that the SHO came to the spot and ensured the cellular phone set dealers that such incident will never occur in future.-PPI