PESHAWAR, Feb 11: Commuters faced severe problems as police closed the busy Sher Shah Suri Road to traffic here on Monday for the whole day to stop protesters from marching towards the Governor’s House.

Heavy contingents of police were deployed and barbed wire was placed on the road from FC Chowk to Governor’s House and onward to Suekarno Chowk and Suripul.Local journalists said that armed policemen behaved with citizens harshly and even mediapersons were not allowed to go to the press club. However, on the intervention of office-bearers of journalists’ bodies they were allowed to proceed but were forced to leave their motorcycles and motorcars behind, they said.

A number of journalists, coming to the press club from FC Chowk side, said that they took their vehicles to Deans Plaza but parking space was not available there and they had to return to their homes.

The busy thoroughfare had been closed in the same way during the past three weeks, causing severe problems for commuters.
The employees of different government departments and students, returning from their homes after a break of two holidays, had to bear the brunt of road closure.

Alamgir Khan, a senior citizen from Mardan, said that he and his family members walked from Assembly Chowk and wanted to go to Gulberg. “I have a kidney problem and can’t walk properly but we decided to move ahead with hope to get a rickshaw,” he said.

Nazar, an assistant sub-inspector of police, told journalists at FC Chowk that he was directed by his bosses to stop whoever wanted to move towards the press club.

The station house officer of East Cantonment police station, Arshad Khan, said that stringent security arrangements were made to stop Mutahidda Qabail Party working from moving towards the Governor’s House.

SP Faisal Kamran, when contacted, said that police got panicked when they learnt that tribal people had planned to observe a sit-in outside the Governor’s House.

“We could not sleep last night due to tension and adopted security measures in a state of compulsion,” he said.