KARACHI, June 10: A protest rally organised by the Kutchhi Rabita Committee as well as the closure of two main arteries in view of security considerations led to a traffic mess in Karachi’s southern district on Monday, officials said.

Hundreds of vehicles remained stranded for several hours in the traffic mess.

The situation started worsening in the second half of the day when the police authorities blocked the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road and Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road under security measures.

The closure of Mauripur Road since Sunday due to violence in Lyari further aggravated the situation.

The traffic authorities, who were busy diverting the traffic to alternative routes from the blocked roads, faced another challenge when a large number of protesters took to the main I.I. Chundrigar Road to move to the Chief Minister House in the form of a rally that was organised by the KRC in protest over the Lyari violence.

Besides I.I. Chundrigarh Road, the situation caused a massive traffic mess on 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 parts of Saddar.

“The key roads were blocked due to security concerns and it increased traffic pressure on other routes,” said DIG-Traffic Abdul Khaliq Sheikh. “First there was no traffic on Mauripur Road due to violence in Lyari, then two roads —Aiwan-i-Saddar Road and Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road — were blocked for security concerns. We did our best to divert the traffic to alternative routes but in the evening the situation turned a little more challenging when people left offices and a large number of vehicles clogged the roads.”

He said that the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road was later opened for traffic in the evening. This helped in bringing the situation to normality, he added.