KOHAT: The residents have appealed to the deputy commissioner to order removal of hundreds of pushcarts from the government school No 2 up to the chicken market as they caused frequent traffic jams on the road leading to the sasta bazaar.

Chairman Karwan-i-Ammal Haji Saeed Akhtar and chairman Sada-i-Kohat Zahid Hussain Inqilabi on Sunday said hundreds of pushcarts stood on both sides of the road, squeezing space for motorists and pedestrians.

They alleged that the tehsil municipal administration was complicit in allowing the pushcart workers to do business on the roadsides.

They claimed the lower staff of TMA took Rs100 from each pushcart owner daily. They pointed out that there were over 750 pushcarts occupying the road.

Tehsil municipal officer Mansoor Khan told Dawn on contact that only the pushcart owners operating on the old bus stand road were legal and those on the school No 2 road were illegal.

Assistant commissioner Sardar Sameer Hussain Leghari said the administration and the TMA removed pushcarts from the busy roads, but they appeared again the next day. He said the pushcart owners were mostly Afghans.

PASSENGERS LOOTED: Highwaymen looted passenger vehicles while blocking the Kohat-Shakardara Road at the Tarali Bridge on Saturday night.

Shafique, a taxi driver en-route from Peshawar to Mianwali district of Punjab, told Dawn that he managed to dodge the four robbers, who were looting commuters. Later, he said he informed the Shakardarra police about the matter.

However, police did not reach the place, giving the highwaymen free hand to continue the looting spree, depriving a number of passengers of cash, mobile phones and other valuables.

SHO Shakardarra Omer Khan told this correspondent on contact that Tarali came in the jurisdiction of Lachi police.

DSP Lachi Yousuf Khan said the incident might have happened on a dirt road going under the bridge. He said the drivers should take the route over the bridge to avoid such incidents.

He said when the police reached the scene they found no robbers there. He said nobody had approached the police for registration of case.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2022