KASUR: Traders of Allahbad timber market blocked Deepalpur Road for around five hours on Sunday after seven of them were deprived of Rs0.8 million cash and cell phones in a broad daylight robbery at their business place.

According to traders, three unidentified robbers stormed the Allahabad timber market, resorted to aerial firing and deprived at least seven businessmen of total Rs0.8 million cash and their cell phones at gunpoint.

After committing the robbery, the audacious criminals again opened aerial fire to spread terror in the market and fled away.

Traders said that they immediately made phone calls to police emergency helpline 15, but no one responded. They also claimed that they called the station house officer (SHO) concerned, but of no avail.

The situation forced the traders to stage a protest against the incident and the rising lawlessness in the city by blocking Deepalpur Road by burning tyres.

The protesting traders also chanted slogans against the police for their failure to control crime in the area.

They lamented that it was not the first such incident in the market, as the robbers had targeted their business place at least a dozen times in the last few days, but police could not arrest even a single robber so far.

The situation worsened when Allahbad SHO Muhammad Yasir finally arrived there, and instead of pacifying the protesters, threatened to lodge a case against them for blocking the road.

The traders, however, refused to open the road for traffic and started shouting anti-police slogans more vociferously.

Later, Chunian DSP Sarwar Awan arrived at the scene and assured the protesters that the robbers would be arrested soon and justice would be delivered. Following the assurance, the protesters dispersed peacefully, ending their five-hour-long protest.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023