Terrorism risk: Diversions and blockades bring road rage and delays

Threats led to unprecedented security measures; residents irked by inconveniences; traffic snarls abound.

PESHAWAR:

The provincial capital is witnessing unprecedented security measures in the wake of reports on terrorist activities over the past two days.

Road closures near police stations and traffic diversions have created traffic jams around the city, as several major arteries remained clogged on the Tuesday.

The authorities have closed a portion of the Sunehri Masjid in front of West Cantonment Police Station in Peshawar Cantt with concrete blocks and diverted traffic into a single lane, which is resulting into traffic clogging on this busy thoroughfare. All day long, traffic going towards Cantonment from the City area moved at snail’s pace due to the blockades.

Similarly, one lane of Bara Road has been barricaded near the Khyber Agency Political Agent’s office and all traffic coming from Bara and the suburbs of Peshawar has been diverted to the other lane.

Barricades have also been placed near Central Jail on Sher Shah Suri Road and a link road between Sher Shah Suri Road and Khyber Road near the K-P Assembly, creating a bottleneck on the road.

In addition to this, additional barricades have been placed in front of the East Cantonment Police Station on Khyber Road, while new blockades have been placed near the Military Police (MP) check-post in Gora Qabristan on University Road.

Also On University Road, road blocks have been put in place near Arbab Road, while roads have been closed down in front of the Paharipura, Faqirabad and Hayatabad police stations in different parts of the city.

An armoured personnel carrier (APC) was also seen parked in front of the Bala Hisar Fort headquarters of the paramilitary Frontier Corps on Grand Trunk Road.

Peshawar resident Khalid Ahmed said that he was going to visit a friend in the Khyber Super Market area on Bara Road on Monday, but he turned around halfway after seeing the heavy police deployment near the area.

He said that talk of the bomb blasts and terrorist attacks was unbearable for him, as peace was gradually returning to the city after long series of attacks.

Ashfaq Khan, a shopkeeper in Saddar, was of the view that such steps were only bound to create panic among citizens and could not thwart terrorist attacks.

“If the authorities have received threats from particular group or people, they should go after them and foil their evil plans instead of increasing security installations,” he said, while asking that if security agencies put themselves behind heavy fortifications, what will become of the general public.

Police sources said that there were reports of possible terrorist attacks in the city and the security measures have been taken to thwart any such activity, adding that the road blocks will removed after the threat is neutralised.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2011.