HYDERABAD: Shopkeepers in mobile market, who had shuttered their outlets in the wake of a raid by Custom officials on Thursday night, kept the market completely shut the following day and on Saturday in protest.

The shopkeepers sat outside their outlets and raised slogans against the raid. The mobile market association’s president, Noman Shah, said that they would continue the protest till their mobile phones, which were snatched by officials during the raid, were returned to them.

He contested Customs director’s claim that 137 mobile phones were seized and said the number of the cell phones was much higher as many were damaged during the resultant melee. He said that the protest would end only after their mobile phones worth millions of rupees were returned to them.

He said that mobile phones were reaching retailers through different layers and nobody was checking them. The shopkeepers had suffered a loss of millions of rupees but nobody was listening to their woes, he complained.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2025