KARACHI, July 8: The minibus operators blocked Banaras Chowk by parking their vehicles on the roads coming from different parts of Orangi Town on Thursday morning.

They were protesting against the Wednesday night incident when some passengers had beaten up a minibus driver and conductor. The protesters forced passengers to alight from minibuses crossing the roundabout and blocked the road by parking those vehicles on the road. They also pelted passing vehicles with stones and roughed up several passengers who questioned their protest, police said.

To disperse the violent protesters, police resorted to baton charge and the drivers were ordered to remove the vehicles from the roundabout. However, police made no arrest. According to the police, two armed men deprived coach passengers of cash and valuables at gunpoint on Wednesday evening.

However, driver and conductor of the vehicle were not asked to hand over cash or other valuables. This created doubts in mind of young passengers, who suspected some nexus between the minibus operators and the armed suspects. They roughed up the driver and the conductor, which provoked the minibus operators to stage protest on Thursday morning, police added.

FIRE: The first floor of the Pakistan Insurance Corporation Towers, located near Hotel Beach Luxury, was gutted in fire on Thursday night. Cheif Fire Officer Kazim Ali told Dawn that the fire, erupted on the first floor of the building, damaged computer network. He said that the building had no fire-fighting resources. To release the smoke trapped inside, the front glass of the building was broken, he added.