KARACHI, Sept 13: Citizens continued to face hardship for the second consecutive day, Monday, as police had blocked many roads for security reasons on the occasion of the inauguration of the defence exhibition 'Ideas-2004'.
People complained that they were stuck up in the deluge of traffic at many places due to an unannounced closure of different roads. Although the Sharea Faisal remained open for traffic, its link roads and service roads were closed with barricades.
The main roads leading to Sharea Faisal were also open but all streets having their openings on these main roads were manned by police and private security guards who were not allowing motorists to drive through the main roads.
"It doesn't make sense that Sharea Faisal is open but we are not allowed to go through it," said a motorist who was stopped at an opening of a PECHS street at Sharea Faisal.
Parking along the service road on both sides of Sharea Faisal was also strictly prohibited causing problems to thousands of people working in the offices along the thoroughfare.
The area around the Expo Centre, venue of the defence exhibition, was cordoned off in the afternoon. Police had closed Shah Mohammad Suleman Road, Karsaz Road, and a section of University Road which was cordoned off from Hasan Square to Baitul Mukarram mosque.
Heavy deployment of police was witnessed around the Expo Centre as well as the residential and commercial buildings surrounding it. The city government staff at its headquarters in Civic Centre was directed in the morning to vacate the premises as the law-enforcement agencies personnel would be taking over the building in the afternoon.
Eventually, all the offices were closed and the civilian staff were made to leave the premises. Helicopters hovered the heavily guarded Expo Centre throughout the day.
Police were also deployed at the gates of the residential complexes and buildings, overlooking the Expo Centre, on University Road and Shah Mohammad Suleman Road, and did not allow anyone to even peep into the exhibition site from the balconies of their flats or houses.
In the evening, the police blocked Sharea Faisal and diverted the traffic towards the alternative routes. No advance information had been given to commuters about the arrangement.
A motorists, using his mobile phone, said that he was stuck up in the deluge of traffic in Mehmoodabad as hundreds of vehicles remained unmoved at Shaheed-i-Millat bridge alone for hours. A number of vehicles moved towards an alternative route only to create traffic chaos in the adjacent streets of Mehmoodabad.
Reports of prolonged traffic jams were also received from Nipa roundabout, Stadium Road, Old Sabzi Mandi, Gharibabad, Liaquatabad, Saddar, and other areas. Police had also closed Club Road, Abdullah Haroon Road (in front of the US consulate), Fatima Jinnah Road, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan Road and Aiwan-i-Saddar Road all the day.
The Aiwan-i-Saddar Road was reopened in the evening but the link-road housing the office of the DIG Operations and Artillery Maidan police station, remained closed till late on Monday.