KARACHI: Police resorted to heavy tear gas shelling and fired into the air in a Malir locality to disperse a large number of people who blocked the National Highway as well as the main railway track for hours on Monday in protest over the recent arrest of a Shia cleric and leaders.

In the evening, the police released around two dozen protesters, who were earlier taken into custody for the Monday violence, on the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who held successful talks with a group of Shia ulema.

Witnesses said that a portion of the National Highway, which linked the city with upcountry, virtually became a battleground between a heavy contingent of the police and protesters for almost the whole day. Schools in the vicinity closed early and business activities remained suspended.

Hundreds of vehicles got stuck in an hours-long traffic jam because of the suspension of vehicular traffic on both tracks of the highway near Malir 15. The train service also got suspended for hours.

While a spokesman for the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen said that nine protesters suffered bullet wounds because of police firing, the police said that the only injured during the Monday episode were two policemen who were hurt in stone-pelting incidents.

The protest began at 3am on Monday when scores of people, including women and children, blocked the main road and staged a sit-in, in protest over the arrests of Shia leaders.

The situation got tense in the morning when police reached the scene and asked the people to disperse, who in turn made it clear that they would not leave until their leaders, including head of the All Pakistan Shia Action Committee Mirza Yousuf Hussain, were released.

The police started tear gas shelling, baton charged the protesters and took into custody around a dozen of them. However, the protesters did not end their sit-in. Upon which, senior officials told them that it was not in their domain to get released their leaders, but they were forwarding their demand to the provincial authorities and in the meantime they should vacate one track of the highway.

The protesters vacated one track of the highway on the condition that their held colleagues should be released.

Although the police released them, the situation turned violent again at about 4pm after some people started pelting policemen with stones and blocked the vacated track.

The police, once again, resorted to heavy tear gas shelling forcing the protesters to escape into nearby lanes. The law enforcers chased the protesters and took into custody around two dozen of them. The sit-in also ended with the police action and the highway was reopened for vehicular traffic.

Later, the CM met a delegation of Shia ulema and told them he launched an across-the-board operation in the city, which “is not against any group or sect but it is for the protection of each and every inhabitant and against those who want to destroy peace and sectarian harmony in this city”.

The delegation requested the CM to release Faisal Raza Abidi, Mirza Yousuf Hussain and all those arrested while protesting for the release of their leaders.

The chief minister directed the IGP to withdraw all FIRs and release all those held for staging protests at the Numaish traffic intersection on M. A. Jinnah Road and Malir 15. He also urged the ulema to ask their people not to block any road in the city.

The CM told the delegation that Mr Abidi was arrested for possessing an unlicensed weapon. “Just produce the licence and we will release him,” he said, adding that Mirza Yousuf would have to seek bail from a court of law.

The MWM spokesman confirmed that around 24 protesters were released following the CM’s directives.

Meanwhile, MWM leader Maulana Iqbal Ahmed Rizvi, who was arrested from his house in New Rizvia Society on Sunday night for misuse of loudspeaker, was released on bail by a court on Monday.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2016