FAISALABAD: Business activities were disrupted for five hours or so at the eight bazaars of Clock Tower as activists of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) forced the traders to put their shutters down to join its demonstration on Tuesday.

The SIC, which had given the strike call along with the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Minhajul Quran and its allied organisations against the arrest of clerics, ban on the use of loudspeakers and the Model Town incident, said it had just appealed to the traders to go for a shutter-down strike.

The traders said the club-wielding activists of the SIC turned up on roads and forced the traders to close their shops. At the Clock Tower intersection, the situation remained tense as the protesters and traders engaged in brawls especially at Jhang Bazaar and Bhawana Bazaar. The policemen deployed at the intersection stayed aloof.

A trader of Jhang Bazaar told reporters that club-wielding protesters took round of their market and threatened the shopkeepers with dire consequences for keeping their shops open. He said some of the traders had complained to the police but the latter preferred to stay aloof.

Hamid Raza, chairman of the SIC, told the protesters at the Clock Tower intersection that they would not accept ban on the loudspeakers and arrest of the clerics having no criminal background. He said the protest against the government would continue till release of the clerics and lifting of the ban. He alleged that the government had been supporting the patronisers of the terrorists.

A handout said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the strike in Faisalabad and sought a report from the RPO. He ordered immediate action against troublemakers and complete protection to the traders.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play