KARACHI, Jan 18: Traffic remained suspended on M.A. Jinnah Road for an hour on Thursday afternoon when traders and shopkeepers of Kharadar cloth market blocked it. The shopkeepers were protesting against the killing of a shopkeeper by bandits.

They called off their protest after DIG Operation Mushtaq Shah assured them of effective policing in their zones. Eye-witnesses said traffic remained suspended from Radio Pakistan to Tower for three hours.

A shopkeeper, Masood, 35, was shot fatally by two bandits riding a motorcycle.

They held the shopkeeper hostage at gunpoint and tried to loot him. They shot him as he tried to flee.

The protesting traders later marched to the Central Police Office and staged a sit-in on I.I. Chundrigarh Road causing a severe traffic jam. Some angry protestors even barged in to and briefly occupied Mithadar Police Station to lodge their protest. They demanded immediate action against the growing incidents of lawlessness in the city. —Staff Reporter