PESHAWAR, May 18: The Cantonment Board Peshawar on Saturday sealed 29 shops in Saddar Bazaar for the owners’ failure to pay taxes on time.

However, this action led to a strong reaction by the business community, which observed a sit-in protest on Fakhr-i-Alam Road and Saddar Road and blocked the traffic.

The protesters were led by Anjuman-i-Tajiran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Sharafat Ali Mubarak and Haji Shaukat Ali. They said that the cantt board administration had illegally increased the ratio of taxes and none of the traders were ready to pay them.

The traders tried to open the sealed shops forcefully, but police did not allow them doing so which led to a shutter down strike against police. The traders said that sealing of the shops would cause them huge losses as they had already suffered a lot due to militancy and bomb blasts during the past some years.

In the meantime, former provincial sports minister Syed Aqil Shah and Senator Haji Adeel also arrived to resolve the issue between the cantonment board Peshawar and the business community.