ISLAMABAD: A mini truck loaded with batons and marbles was stopped by security personnel before it entered Constitution Avenue via Margalla Road on Wednesday evening, police officials said.

Police officers deployed at the Margalla Road picket intercepted the truck and asked the driver where he was going. The driver told them that he was carrying supplies for the participants of the sit-ins, prompting the security team to search his cargo.

During the search, policemen turned up a large quantity of marbles, slingshots and batons. The driver told them that they were for workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek. Police confiscated the cargo and allowed the vehicle and its driver to proceed without taking any punitive action.

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A police official told Dawn they did not want to cause a scene and had only confiscated the material so that it would not be used against police officials who were supposed to be protecting sensitive buildings on Constitution Avenue. He said that the driver and vehicle were released because the government did not want a confrontation with the protestors.

However, later in the evening, journalist covering the sit-ins for a foreign news agency tweeted a photograph of a bag of marbles, saying they were being distributed among PAT supporters at the sit-in.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014