COVID-19: Nine arrested for organising weekly market

KARACHI: Police arrested nine persons on Tuesday for organising a weekly makeshift market in Rizvia Town.

The action was taken in light of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar’s directives to keep all markets closed in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.

According to Central District SSP Arif Aslam Rao, Rizvia police had received information that a weekly bazaar had been set up in a street in the Gulbahar area. Following this, the police took immediate action and arrived at the scene arresting nine accused and registered a case against them.

The aforementioned bazaar had been set up on the same spot where a six-storey building had collapsed onto two other buildings on March 5. The incident left several injured and resulted in the death of 27 people. Meanwhile, area locals pointed out that the market was set up in the street every week and if a building were to fall there would be far too many causalities.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2020.