KARACHI, April 25: Traffic movement suffered severe hiccups in three districts of the city, particularly in the old city area, on Thursday when people staged a sit-in on the ICI bridge and Mauripur Road to condemn what they described as the killing of ‘innocent’ PPP workers in the Tuesday night shootout in Lyari.

A similar protest was staged on Purani Golimar Road adding to traffic congestion that caused a trickledown effect up to Nazimabad, Dakhana, Liaquatabad and the Lesballa traffic intersection.

Three alleged kidnappers were killed and a passerby woman lost her life in what law-enforcers described as a shootout with armed suspects near Afshani Gali in the Kalakot area of Lyari on Tuesday night.

A joint team of the Rangers and police had gone to the area to raid the kidnappers’ hideout and recover a hostage when the shootout took place. The kidnappers had already killed the hostage and dumped his body, the police said.

A deputy superintendent of Rangers, Mohammad Hanif, who had suffered wounds in the encounter died during treatment in a hospital on Thursday.

However, PPP candidate from Lyari and former MNA Abdul Qadir Patel described the encounter as ‘staged’ and claimed that the three victims were PPP activists.

Earlier on Wednesday, a large number of Lyari residents had offered funeral prayers for the three men on Mauripur Road.

The effect of the daylong sit-in was felt as far as Boat Basin traffic signal, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Shaheen Complex traffic signal, PIDC traffic signal and Metropole.

In district west, the traffic got jammed up at Gul Bai, State Avenue Road, Site, and Shershah intersection up to Nazimabad Petrol Pump intersection. Likewise, traffic jam was also witnessed at Purani Golimar Road and the Lesbella intersection. “To ease the congestion, we used one track of the M.T. Khan Road for a two-way traffic since one of the tracks was totally blocked by tankers and trailers,” said DIG (traffic) Abdul Khalique Shaikh.

“Similarly, we lifted all vehicles parked on I.I. Chundrigar Road to ease traffic situation,” he added.

As trailers and other long vehicles caused most problems, the traffic police guided these vehicles to Korangi via Shireen Jinnah Colony.

“Since the DHA does not allow long vehicles to pass through its area, we had to request the DHA authorities to briefly allow the vehicles to pass,” he said.

But these efforts bore little fruit as the prolonged blockade of the Mauripur Road caused serious traffic jams in district south, west and central.