KARACHI: Hundreds of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) activists converged on the Gurumandir traffic intersection to stage a protest demonstration against ‘extrajudicial killings’ and the ‘illegal arrest’ of their party workers on Tuesday.

The traffic system in parts of the city was paralysed during the protest following the abrupt closure of key link roads.

The demonstration that began in the afternoon continued even after sunset despite repeated requests by authorities to call off the protest.

The workers were addressed by their leaders, including Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi, who condemned what he described as ‘state terrorism’ against his party.

“We organised a sit-in on Friday and called it off only on assurance of authorities that they would pay heed to our demands and address our grievances,” said the party spokesman. “But nothing has happened yet. Instead more ASWJ workers have been picked up by the law enforcement agencies. The law enforcement agencies are continually arresting innocent youngsters and killing them in fake encounters. The fresh sit-in will continue till something credible is seen on the ground.”

During the protest, the ASWJ announced that the workers would march on CM House, causing police and traffic authorities to take immediate measures.

After the blockade of roads leading to CM House and Governor House, the traffic system in Karachi’s south district began to unravel and worsened with time.

“We enhanced deployment in the affected areas to help road users divert to alternative routes,” said DIG of traffic Dr Amir Sheikh.

“Obviously the alternative routes are not wide and big enough to carry the traffic flow at the evening rush hour and that too in south district which has hundreds of commercial centres. So ultimately it led to gridlock at some intersections.”

Hundreds of vehicles were seen stuck in traffic jams on I.I. Chundrigarh Road, M. R. Kayani Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, Abdullah Haroon Road, South Napier Road, Old Outram Road, Hasrat Mohani Road, Wood Street, Shahrah-i-Kamal Ataturk, Burnes Road, Belassis Street, Shahrah-i-Liaquat, Nicol Road and the traffic chaos stretched to parts of Saddar and Sharea Faisal and Shahrah-i-Quaideen.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014