FAISALABAD, Jan 27: Hundreds of owners of industrial units, labourers and traders on Tuesday protested against lawlessness in the district.

They gathered in front of the District Government Complex and staged a sit-in there. Later, they paraded various city roads with banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the police.

The All Pakistan Sizing Industries Association had given the protest call following failure of the local police to check the alarming increase in the dacoity incidents in the factories and houses in the last few months.

The Anjuman Tajiran office-bearers, shopkeepers of various city areas and trade representatives also participated in the procession which started from the Zila Council Intersection.

The participants chanted slogans against the police and district administration. They alleged that the police were patronizing the culprits. Some of them parked their wagons, trolleys and mini-trucks in front of the Katchery Bazaar Intersection and blocked traffic for about 15 minutes.

The protesters held a meeting at the Clock Tower intersection. APSIA president Mirza Shafiq, secretary-general Shahbaz Ahmad Kissana, representative of Anjuman Tajiran Faiz Mohyuddin and other trade leaders spoke to the participants.

They alleged that the police were harassing industrialists to mint money from them. They said the residents of urban and rural areas were having sleepless nights because of the inefficiency of the police high-ups and administrative functionaries.

They said that they had contacted the Punjab governor, chief minister and the home department authorities but to no avail. TMA worried: The Tehsil Municipal Administration (Saddar) expressed its dismay over the alarming increase in the dacoity and theft incidents.

At a meeting presided over by Rasheed Dhiloon on Tuesday, itdemanded a high-level inquiry into the police failure to protect lives and properties of people.

The meeting was convened to discuss law and order, imposition of toll on main roads, allotment of offices of the TMA Saddar and developmental projects. Immediately after the start of the meeting, a number of TMA councillors stood up on their seats. They started making speeches against the local police due to which the meeting turned into a protest meeting against the police.

A number of tehsil councillors alleged that the police functionaries were patronizing outlaws, running dens of criminals, providing shelter to traffickers and gamblers and extorting money from the people.

Through a resolution, the meeting demanded that the police high-ups should take appropriate measures to ensure the protection of lives and properties of the people and constitute a committee to fix responsibility on the officials involved in patronizing the gangsters.

The meeting asked the district government to withdraw its decision to impose toll on main roads. The TMA councillors decided to hold protests if the Punjab government and district administration failed to allot proper offices for them within next week.

Meanwhile, dacoits shot dead a villager, looted thousands of rupees and gold ornaments and hijacked three cars and a motorcycle in 12 strikes in the city and its rural areas in the last 24 hours.

A gang of armed men took away the car (No FS 870) and thousands of rupees from advocate Noor Ahmad at Thikriwala. The lawyer died of heart failure in his house.

Dacoits shot dead Ali Abbas Shah on resistance in a public call office in Chak 59 JB. Armed men deprived Mehr Din of his car (No KW 9990) on Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road.

The car (No FDT 4860) of Muhammad Sharif was stolen from Digluspura. Two masked men took away the motorcycle (No FDX 3841) of trader Mazhr Hussain and thousands of rupees at Kanjwani.

Masked men looted cash, gold ornaments and other valuables from the house of Mahmood Iqbal in Chak 204 RB, Saddar. Four dacoits snatched Rs14,000, a cell phone and looted household articles from the general store of Zahid Iqbal in Raza Town.

Robbers looted cash and gold ornaments, worth thousands of rupees, from the family of Abdul Rasheed on Narwala Road. Thousands of rupees, gold ornaments and electronic goods were stolen from the house of government employee Rana Mohsin in Gulistan Colony.

Thieves took away consumer goods, cigarettes and other valuables from the shop of Arshad in Satiana Bangla. Mobile phone sets and other electronic goods from the shop of Azhar Hussain in Peoples Colony were stolen. Cash, gold ornaments and other valuables were stolen from the house of Ayub Khan in Chak 29 JB.