KARACHI: A policeman was shot and injured as anti-encroachment drive off Superhighway turned violent on Thursday afternoon where protesters blocked both tracks of M-9 motorway, disrupting traffic for some time, officials said.

SITE-Superhighway SHO Idris Bangash said that land grabbers had illegally occupied state lands in Hingora Goth off Superhighway. He said the district administration with help of the police launched an anti-encroachment drive and were demolishing the illegal constructions on the government lands when a mob attacked the police with stones.

He said some of them also resorted to firing, resulting in bullet injuries to police constable Jan Nisar.

The protesters also blocked the both tracks of Superhighway (now) M-9 motorway.

A traffic police spokesperson in a statement said that both the tracks of the highway near Al-Habib Restaurant were blocked for one hour during protest against anti-encroachment drive.

However, a Motorway police official, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that the protesters blocked the highway for around 15-20 minutes.

He said the traffic spread over 23 kilometres on the motorway from New Sabzi Mandi was adversely affected. However, contingents of the law enforcers immediately reached the spot and got it vacated from the protestors to ensure smooth flow of the traffic.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2022