HARIPUR, Sept 10: Punjab police started blocking Abbottabad-Hassanabdal and Taxila-Haripur roads near Jhari Kas and Jandial from Sunday night to stop workers of the Pakistan Mulism League-Nawaz from reaching Islamabad to receive former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif on Monday.

“The authorities had suspended traffic at around 6pm on Sunday by unloading truckloads of sand and stones and tree trunks, blocking the roads,” witnesses said.

The blockade resulted in long queues of vehicles and cargo trucks, stranding passengers for hours.

However, according to Arshad Khan, SHO of the Kot Najibullah police station, he had negotiated with the Punjab police and cleared the roads but they were again blocked at around midnight. The roads remained closed till 1pm on Monday.

Heavy contingents of anti-riot police was deployed at all exit points from the NWFP, including Jhari Kas, Farooqia and Jandial and the PML-N workers’ cavalcade headed by former NWFP CM and provincial party head Pir Sabir Shah was not allowed to proceed towards Islamabad.

Minor scuffles broke out at Jhari kas when some party workers from Mansehra district clashed with Punjab police and tried to cross into Punjab. The police resorted to baton charge and tear-gas shelling, slightly injuring two PML-N workers. Angry workers also pelted stones at an APC.

Later, the party leaders, including Sardar Mushtaq, Pir Sabir Shah, Haripur tehsil nazim Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, Arshad Ayub Khan, Barister Javed Abbasi, Inayet Iqbal Jadoon held talks with DPO Attock Tariq Joya and managed to enter the Punjab territory.

Later, the party workers, travelling in about 2,000-plus vehicles, dispersed voluntarily on the request of Pir Sabir Shah near Jhari Kass.