Commuters were stuck in traffic for hours on Monday as activists belonging to a religious party blocked the busy Murree Road. As part of their countrywide protest, the demonstrators brought the traffic on the thoroughfare to a standstill, subsequently creating gridlocks on multiple roads of the garrison city while stick-wielding demonstrators also damaged a track of Metro Bus.
The protest was staged by activists of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after the party’s chief Sahibzada Saad Hussain Rizvi was detained by the police in Lahore. Later, the federal government called in Rangers to maintain law and order in the federal capital. Hundreds of TLP workers in the twin cities blocked various highways and roads with burning tires. A heavy contingent of police was deployed at all major government and private buildings, including on major highways.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Adnan Ameen, a resident of Rawalpindi, said he was coming back home from Islamabad with his teenage son when they got stuck in a traffic jam. “The journey which we normally cover in 45 minutes, ended in over two and a half hours due to the demonstration,” he complained. Like Ameen and his son, hundreds of residents suffered the same fate in Rawalpindi.
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