MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 23: The AJK capital witnessed a complete shutter-down strike coupled with rallies and demonstrations by traders on Friday against non-registration of aliens who they alleged were “causing law and order problems and threatening the social fabric of society.”
The strike call was given by Traders Joint Action Committee (TJAC) and response of the business community to it was overwhelming, notwithstanding opposition by a traders’ union in Madina Market.
Witnesses and official sources said that all shops, small hotels and restaurants, kiosks and business centres remained closed. Street vendors and handcarts were also away.
The shutter-down was triggered particularly by the disappearance of Khawaja Asim Rasool, a trader, since the night of January 16.
The traders took out small processions from different localities and later assembled at the Aziz Hotel Chowk where a big public meeting was held.
The protesters were chanting slogans against law-enforcement agencies for their alleged inability to provide security to the residents.
They were critical of unchecked influx of “aliens” in the town which they alleged was the root cause of growing incidents of crimes.
“We have been drawing the attention of the authorities since long that the unchecked influx of people with suspected identities is damaging the social fabric of our peaceful society and creating other law and order problems but all of our calls seem to have been falling on deaf ears,” said Tariq Mahmood Wani, chairman TJAC.
He said even after the involvement of outsiders in two separate incidents of abduction of girls was proved, the authorities concerned had not taken the issue seriously.
“Enough is enough. The residents and traders of this town would no more tolerate the indifference of authorities towards these issues,” he said.
Mr Wani demanded that all those outsiders who did not possess any identification documents should be immediately pushed back while others must be registered under a comprehensive system.
It may be recalled that a senior police official had declared around five months ago that the outsiders would be brought under a registration network.
The traders also called for increase in police patrols, saying it would help arrest the incidents of burglaries and thefts.
Those who spoke at the public meeting included Pervez Iqbal Banday, Basharat Mughal, Shabbir Awan, Sabir Naqvi, Farooq Qadri, Imtiaz Mir and Arif Lone.
Meanwhile, the police have constituted a team headed by ASP City Kamran Sikandar to trace the missing trader.
Additional SP Raja Nasrullah Khan, however, regretted at a briefing that rallies and demonstrations by a “set of opportunist elements” were in fact diverting the attention of the police from their actual task.
“Let me assure that the police are investigating this case professionally using both conventional and scientific methods,” he said.
