SWABI: On a written request from the additional assistant commissioner (ACC) Tehsil Razaar, district Swabi, the Kalu Khan police station has registered an FIR against 200 people including the secretary general of tehsil headquarters traders, president transporters and other officials for damaging the property of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority by opening Shawa Adda Chowk without the permission of the administration during the protest, held a day earlier, said officials in Kalu Khan police station on Wednesday.

The entrepreneurs told Dawn that last year, during the construction of the road, the KPHA had closed the U-turn at Shawa Adda Chowk and built an alternative one at some distance away, over which shopkeepers, transporters and the public had expressed concern and apprehension, demanding immediate attention to their demand.

They argued that the closure of the square had not only affected their business but also caused severe difficulties in the movement of people and vehicles from Dagai, Shawa and other localities. During the protest, the traders and people demolished the wall built in place of the old U-turn.

Police register FIR for damaging KPHA property

AAC Sabiha, while taking a stand in a written request to the police authorities, said that the traders and transporters interfered in the government affairs and damaged the property of KPHA by breaking the wall built on the main road in Shawa Adda and opening it for traffic and public movement.

Therefore, an FIR should be registered against them because they intentionally damaged the public property and closed the Swabi-Mardan Road for general traffic for two and a half hours. Later, they used abusive language against government institutions, meddled in the official duties of government officials, and damaged the wall built in Shawa Adda Chowk.

An FIR has been registered against district president of transporters Waqif Khan, former president shopkeepers Shawa Adda Khan Faraz, president Atif Khan, general secretary Bakhtiar Khan, and prominent leaders Bashir, Akbar, Abdullah, Tariq, Khan Muhammad, Haroon, Raveed Ali, Dr Israr Jamaat-i-Islami and various others.

The police officials said that they have chalked out a plan to arrest all those who indulged in vandalism.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2025