FAISALABAD, July 2: Traders are committed to observing a strike on Thursday (today) to press the government for the registration of a case against the students expelled from the Punjab Medical College (PMC), despite the district administration’s move to convince them to refrain from doing so.

The Anjuman-i-Tajran (AT) and clerics of different sects announced that they would observe a shutter-down strike to protest against the PMC and the district administration for leniently handling the issue.

AT Secretary-General Mahmood Alam told Dawn that traders would pull their shutters down on Thursday.

The PMC administration had rusticated 33 students on charges of “preaching their faith” on the campus. A committee is probing into the matter.

Sources said District Coordination Officer (DCO) Azam Suleman and DIG Aslam Tareen had pressured the traders to withdraw their announcement of strike, but they refused to budge from their position. They demand registration of a criminal case against the students.