TAXILA: Protesters on Saturday blocked Taxila-Khanpur road for hours against growing street crime and robbery incidents.

The protesters chanted slogans against the police and local administration for their failure to control crime. They demanded the removal of the officials in the area.

The protesters gathered on the road after a bakery owner was looted in a daylight robbery in the Dhabian area on Khanpur Road for the second time in the last three months.

Three suspected robbers riding a motorcycle also looted a marble shop of Abdullah Khan and deprived him of cash and mobile phones. The suspects also struck in Rehbar Colony in the same police station limits and looted a petrol agency and general store.

Moreover, two armed suspects snatched Rs300,000 from Umer Javaid in Musheerabad when he was going home from his shop in the limits of Wah Saddar police station.

Separately, alleged burglars broke into the house of Syed Hassan Ali Shah in Pour area in the limits of Taxila police station and fled with Rs900,000 million cash and gold ornaments worth Rs1.80 million.

Talking to the media, the protesters said that police were nowhere even after several incidents of robberies and snatching incidents. They said it seemed that criminals were above the law and police were supporting them. They said over four motorcycles had either been stolen or snatched within a week but none of them had been recovered.

Attiqur Rehman, a Jamaat-i-Islami leader, said robberies were on the rise but police were not taking any action against them leaving the citizens with no option but to register their protest by blocking traffic.

Ameen Khan, another protester, said that the crime graph had alarmingly increased in the area because of the inefficiency of the police. Malik Saad said that armed bandits were on a looting spree in the residential and commercial areas depriving masses of cash and valuables on a daily basis.

After negotiations between the protesters and police, traffic was restored on the road. The traffic between Taxila and Khanpur remained suspended for hours causing inconvenience to the commuters.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2024