JUI-F leaders booked for blocking highway

Published November 16, 2019
FIR has been lodged against 250 baton-armed people, including leaders and workers who blocked roads, say police. — AFP/File
FIR has been lodged against 250 baton-armed people, including leaders and workers who blocked roads, say police. — AFP/File

KARACHI: Moachko police on Friday registered a case against some leaders and workers of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl for blocking the highway linking Karachi with Balochistan through Hub as the JUI-F started the second phase of its protest against the federal government after ending its sit-in in the federal capital.

Hub Area SHO Moha­mmed Wasim said the case had been registered against 250 baton-armed people, including some JUI-F leaders and supporters, after they suddenly blocked the highway, causing collision between vehicles and damage to some of them.

He said that the FIR had been registered against 250 people, including JUI-F provincial secretary general Allama Rashid Mehmood Soomro and some other leaders and workers, but said that no arrest had been made so far.

Police have invoked sections 147 (punishment for riots), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 427 (mischief).

Till late Friday night, the JUI-F’s sit-in on the highway continued for the second consecutive day. The SHO said that the protesters had informed the police that they would vacate the road at night, but resume their sit-in on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, JUI-F leader Qari Usman told Dawn that the PPP was ruling Sindh, which was their ‘ally’ in the protest against the federal government.

He said that it was ‘incomprehensible’ why the case had been registered against their party leaders and workers. He vowed to continue the protest as such tactics would not deter them from holding their sit-in.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019

Opinion

Editorial

Punishing evaders
02 May, 2024

Punishing evaders

THE FBR’s decision to block mobile phone connections of more than half a million individuals who did not file...
Engaging Riyadh
Updated 02 May, 2024

Engaging Riyadh

It must be stressed that to pull in maximum foreign investment, a climate of domestic political stability is crucial.
Freedom to question
02 May, 2024

Freedom to question

WITH frequently suspended freedoms, increasing violence and few to speak out for the oppressed, it is unlikely that...
Wheat protests
Updated 01 May, 2024

Wheat protests

The government should withdraw from the wheat trade gradually, replacing the existing market support mechanism with an effective new one over the next several years.
Polio drive
01 May, 2024

Polio drive

THE year’s fourth polio drive has kicked off across Pakistan, with the aim to immunise more than 24m children ...
Workers’ struggle
Updated 01 May, 2024

Workers’ struggle

Yet the struggle to secure a living wage — and decent working conditions — for the toiling masses must continue.