LAHORE, Oct 11: The five-hour long protest by the IJT led to a huge traffic mess on the Canal Road and adjacent arteries on Wednesday.

A man who was being rushed to the Shaikh Zayed Hospital for emergency treatment expired owing to traffic blockade near Paikhaywal turn, it is learnt.

The IJT office-bearers staged the demonstration to protest against the expulsion of three students and condemn classes of the newly-established musicology department.

The Muslim Town police registered an FIR against eight protesters, including Salman Ayub, Wasif Naseer, Chaudhry Ayub, Usman Ghumman, Afzal Gondal, Hafiz Farhat Abbas and Usman Chaudhry.

The Iqbal Town division police, led by SP Kamran Khan, and Garden Town police rushed to the troubled spot besides arrival of heavy contingents of police from Qurban Lines and Qila Gujjar Singh to counter the protest but they could not disperse the mob.

The traffic police also seemed miserable for at least three hours to regulate the bumper-to-bumper vehicles at New Campus bridge and Shah Di Khoi stop. SSP Traffic Wasim Ahmad Khan Sial also reached the spot and tried to settle the problem.

Besides ambulances carrying the ill and injured patients, buses of schools and colleges carrying small children found no way for exit.

The commuters criticised the traffic police’s inefficiency to regulate the traffic. “I had to reach Shaikh Zayed Hospital to inquire after a patient but after reaching Barkat Market Chowk and observing a traffic jam on the campus bridge, I asked a traffic constable to guide me but he did not entertain me as a result of which I stuck in the mess for four hours,” said Mrs Ali, a resident of Raiwind Road.

However, Iqbal Town division SP Kamran Khan told this reporter that the expelled students blocked the two sides from 11:45am to 2:30pm. He claimed that the traffic was restored after creating temporary settlement between the protesters and the university officials following the public pressure.