BADIN: Members of a police party were thrashed on Monday when they tried to force shopkeepers in the cloth market of Shahi Bazaar in Badin city to close their businesses.

Onlookers told local reporters that despite strict orders from the provincial government to keep all business and commercial activities suspended this week as part of lockdown, shopkeepers in the market were selling their goods by pulling up the shutters upon arrival of customers.

A police party struck the bazaar and tried to force the shopkeepers to observe a shutdown but faced violent reaction from some of the defiant traders, who caught hold of the policemen and thrashed them. The policemen got their uniforms torn in the scuffle.

While those involved in the violence managed to escape, some other shopkeepers told the reporters that they were running their businesses without fully pulling up the shutters “with consent of the area police”. They said they used to shut down their shops as and when the police would alert them about their upcoming patrol in the locality. “This time, police visited the bazaar without any intimation and used foul language. That’s why some of the shopkeepers reacted violently,” they said. The police said that they recognised the attackers and would book and arrest them soon.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2021