SIALKOT, Sept 29: Traders, ulema and lawyers observed strike on Thursday against the rising incidence of robberies in Daska city and its outskirts.

Reports said almost all bazaars and industrial units remained closed till noon and were opened gradually in the afternoon.

Later addressing a rally at Fawara Chowk, Punjab Jamiat Ahle Sunnah Chief Organizer Allama Qari Khalid Mehmood, JUI-S Naib Amir Maulana Feroz Khan, Markazi Anjuman Tajran President Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Daska Bar Association President Malik Nazar Husain, Daska Engineering and Industrial Association President Habibur Rehman Mughal and others expressed grave concern over the rising robbery and murder incidents in Daska tehsil due to the alleged slackness of the police.

They were holding placards inscribed with slogans against the police. The protesters condemned the murder of timber trader Hafiz Muhammad Ayub who had been gunned down by three unidentified men on Sept 26 in Islampura-Nisbat Road locality and demanded immediate arrest of killers.

Case: On the orders of the Lahore High Court, Sabzpir police on Thursday registered a case against its five officials for keeping 14 men in illegal custody.

The 14 people were recovered from the custody of SHO Inspector Raza Husnain, sub-inspectors Mushtaq Ahmad and Khadim Husain, ASI Muhammad Anwar and a head-constable by a court bailiff during a raid on the police station on Sept 27.

Meanwhile, the Daska City police registered a case against its SHO Sub-Inspector Tahir Husain Shah and four other police constables for torturing a Gulshan Town, Sialkot, resident

They had detained Nadeem in the police station, chained him and asked him to confess his involvement in a heinous case. On his refusal, they tortured him.

Though a case was registered against them on the Lahore High Court orders, none of them has so far been arrested.