PESHAWAR, Sept 15: Jewellers in the walled city observed a shutter-down strike and blocked the Hospital Road on Wednesday to protest against the arrest of their colleague by the East Cantonment police.

According to police, a group of Afghan thieves burgled a house in Golara, Rawalpindi district, last month and took away 27 tola of gold ornaments. The ringleader, Nasim, along with five members of the group was arrested last week.

During interrogation they told the Golara police that they had sold the jewellry to an Afghan national, Rahimullah, who lived at the Jalozai refugee camp. A few days ago, the police arrested Rahimullah, who told the police that ornaments had been sold to a jeweller, Mohammad Humayun, who owns a shop in the city's Sarafa Bazaar.

The Golara police two days ago recovered gold ornaments from Humayun and on Wednesday the East Cantonment police arrested him for handing him over to the Punjab police. After the arrest of Humayun, the traders closed their shops in protest and blocked the Hospital Road. Later, they went to the Golara police station to stop it from handing over Humayun to the Punjab police.