KARACHI, July 23: In a major anti-encroachment operation, the Liaquatabad Town Administration on Thursday demolished the illegal structures, raised by the owners of 290 shops at Gulbahar sanitary market.

The operation, supervised by the Town Nazim Dr Pervaiz Mehmood, was aimed at widening of the busy Nawab Siddiq Ali Khan Road from 90 feet to 110 feet. Heavy contingents of Gulbahar and Rizvia Society police stations, nazim of Union Council No 1, Amir Hashmi, and officials of the city government's Land department were also present on the occasion to check any untoward incident.

The five shopkeepers, who were taken into custody for trying to resist the demolition operation, were later released. A spokesman for Liaquatabad Town said that the town administration had to take such a drastic action because the shopkeepers had ignored the notices, issued earlier, for voluntarily removing the structures.

He said that the operation had been necessitated as traffic jams on this portion of Nawab Siddiq Ali Khan Road had become a matter of routine, besides a number of fatal accidents had also taken place there.