TAXILA: The Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway (M-1) was blocked on Friday evening for over an hour by residents of Kohlia in Hassanabdal against the closure of a link road to their area.

Sources in the police said at around 6:30pm scores of people carrying sticks and rods blocked the motorway near the Kohlia bridge. Long queues of vehicles could be seen stranded on the motorway.

In the meantime, the driver of a trailer could not stop his vehicle and hit the vehicles from behind. As a result, a number of passengers were injured and many vehicles also damaged.

The villagers were protesting against the closure of a link road by the National Highway Authority (NHA).

Officials from the Hassanabdal police and the National Highways and Motorway Police reached the spot and held successful negotiations with the protesters after which the motorway was opened to traffic.

The injured were taken to different hospitals in Hassanabdal, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. DIG motorway Sajjad Afzal Afridi also reached Hassnabdal to probe the matter.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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