GUJRAT: Jhelum police on Wednesday captured a number of heavy vehicles and containers to use as blockades to stop activists of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) from marching on Islamabad.

Setting up pickets on the GT Road, police impounded containers on various pretexts and parked them at an open site near the national highway. Most of the vehicles seized were carrying construction material while others belonged to an international goods forwarding company.

Sources in Jhelum police said these vehicles would be placed along both sides of the Jhelum river bridge besides other parts of the GT road in the limits of the district as the city was a gateway to the federal capital.

More of such heavy vehicles would be seized by police in the next couple of days and police may barricade the main GT road even a couple of days ahead of the PTI’s scheduled march on Islamabad on Nov 2.

Around 1,000 personnel from Punjab Constabulary arrived in Jhelum on Wednesday and some more were expected to be deployed in Jhelum from other parts of the province to put up stiff resistance against activists of the PTI, Pakistan Awami Tehreek and PML-Q and other opposition parties.

Similar kinds of arrangements were likely to be made by Gujrat police on the bridges of Chenab river and Upper Jhelum canal in Sara-i-Alamgir town of Gujrat that bordered Jhelum city.

An official said since Gujrat was the hometown of Chaudhrys of the PML-Q, a good number of party activists was expected to leave from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts. The administration and police were well aware of the situation and keeping an eye on these factors. However, the official declined to share any details of their strategy.

Local chapters of the PTI and PML-Q had been holding separate meetings of their officials regarding preparations for the Islamabad ‘lockdown’.

Published in Dawn October 27th, 2016