KOHAT: A welfare organisation here on Saturday launched a campaign to distribute 2,000 face masks free of cost among motorcyclists and pedestrians to protect them from coronavirus.

At the launch of campaign, Ittefaq Welfare Organisation chairman Esar Bangash was accompanied by in-charge of Rescue 15 inspector Nazar Abbas, traffic warden Arab Jan and district emergency officer of 1112 Shah Wali.

In a related development, the retailers at medical stores have demanded action against the dealers who have increased the price of masks beyond their purchase limit and asked the health department to deliver missing sanitisers directly from Peshawar.

A retailer of C-Pharmacy, Fahad, told this scribe that the price of a box of 50 masks had shot up to Rs2,000 from Rs180 and they could not invest such a big amount of money in just one item.

Similarly, Tahir of Rana Medical Store complained that sanitisers had totally disappeared and the administration should make arrangements to bring them from Peshawar, Karachi or Rawalpindi.

They said that there was no homemade alternative to the medical masks.

Meanwhile, eleven shopkeepers were arrested for hoarding and selling protective items against coronavirus at higher prices during a joint operation by the district administration and police in bazaars here.

Deputy commissioner Abdur Rehman and district police officer Mansoor Aman had ordered the crackdown after receiving complaints of hoarding and sale of masks, sanitisers and hand wash at exorbitant prices.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2020