PESHAWAR, March 24: Lawyers blocked the busy Khyber Road for more than an hour on Friday to protest against the detention of one of their colleagues by the military police.

Protesting lawyers did not lift the blockade until the detained lawyer, Naveed Akhter, was released. The protestors claimed that Naveed Akhter, a high court lawyer, was going to the court when he was stopped by the military police near Khalid Bin Walid Garden, where they had erected barricades to stop vehicles passing through the Mall Road.

They claimed that the lawyer had introduced himself but they did not allow him as his car did not have the prescribed sticker issued by the military authority for passage through certain roads in the cantonment area. The military police arrested him after an exchange of angry words.

Lawyers claimed that some senior lawyers had tried to persuade the police to release the lawyer, but they had refused. Finally, the lawyers decided to take out a protest procession and to block the Khyber Road, one of the busiest road in the city, connecting Peshawar city with the cantonment area and the University Town. Protesters were led by vice-president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association Hidayatullah Afridi, Qaiser Rasheed, Ghulam Nabi, Abdul Lateef Afridi, Atlas Khan Dagai and Fazal Ilahi Khan.

They also staged a sit-in near the high court and district courts for over an hour.

Protesters also condemned barricades on more than a dozen routes by the military police.