April 25, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 07, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, April 24: Road blockades in Rawalpindi city and on inter-district routes to pre-empt assembly of lawyers and political workers outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on Tuesday on the sixth appearance of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) left the commuters and motorists high and dry with students unable to take examinations.

Police blocked Murree Road, the most widely used link between the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, at Shamsabad public park forcing the commuters to travel on the under-construction Stadium Road.

Precious time and public money went to waste as traffic moved bumper to bumper amid verbal clashes between the motorists and police personnel.

However, the law enforcers said they were helpless and were duty bound to implement the orders issued by their high-ups.

Eye-witnesses told Dawn that a student, who had to sit an examination, was seen pleading motorists and motorcyclists to take him to the educational institution otherwise his entire academic career would be affected.

TAXILA: Scores of people, specially the working class, suffered a lot as police barricaded various entry and exit points of Taxila, Wah Cantonment and Hassanabdal to stop anti-government activists from reaching Islamabad to join opposition parties and lawyers protests.

Hundreds of vehicles including buses, trucks, wagons and even ambulances were left stranded for several hours due to the cordons.

Besides putting up barriers, the police officials dumped sand and stone crush on G.T. Road at Hassanabdal, Burhan, Margalla, Haripur, Khanpur and Taxila. These blockades were also manned by heavy contingents of riot police.

A huge number of commuters were seen at bus stops throughout the day waiting for public transport. Even students in school uniform who wanted to go to Wah Cantt from Hassanabdal were not allowed to cross the cordons.

A large number of the students belonging to POF Sanjwal, POF Havellian and other nearby areas were also not able to reach their institutions to appear in the SSC examinations.

A student, Mohammad Umar, told this correspondent that he was stopped at the cordon in Hassanabdal though he was wearing his uniform and also possessed his roll number slip.

Muneer Tareen, a public servant, said he missed important official work after he was kept waiting at the Jehri Kass picket for hours.

Another man, Muzammil Shah, had to travel 10 kilometres on foot to visit his native village in Swabi to meet his ailing sister.

Heavy police force also sealed the three main exit points of the district by parking trailers and placing obstacles on the main G.T. Road.

ATTOCK: Checkpoints were also set up at various places of Attock, including Teenmela Mor, Haji Shah, Hattian and Fatehjang, to keep a strict check on the movement of local lawyers and political activists.

The roadblocks were removed later in the evening to restore the traffic.