TAXILA: Protesters blocked Taxila-Khanpur road for around an hour against Taxila police for its failure to check street crime, especially growing robbery and snatching incidents in the area.

Motorcycle-borne robbers have been on the loose in various areas of Taxila and Wah during the past few days. Two robbers riding a motorcycle looted a bakery on the Taxila-Khanpur road and fled on Monday. According to the owner, Jamal Nisar, he was present in his shop when two masked men riding a motorcycle pulled up and fled after snatching cash and a mobile phone.

Local people as well as shopkeepers parked their vehicles in the middle of the Taxila-Khanpur road and staged a protest against the broad daylight robbery incidents. As a result, traffic remained suspended, causing immense hardship to commuters, especially women and children travelling in public transport vehicles.

The shopkeeper while talking to newsmen said that he made repeated calls to the police rescue-15 but even after an hour no police official responded to him.

A protester, Khalid Malik, said that a few days ago a young milkman was shot dead for resisting a robbery in Taxila and the police failed to trace the culprits.

Later, police reached the road and after successful negotiation the protesters dispersed.

On the other hand, in the same police station limits, two armed men riding a motorcycle snatched a mobile phone from Mohammad Owais and fled. Separately, four persons riding two motorcycles intercepted Javaid Akbar in Model Town Wah and snatched Rs0.5 million from him.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2024