Peshawar Protest: Demonstration against police

PESHAWAR: The Pak-Afghan Transport Owners Association (PATOA) held a protest on Wednesday against what they call the ‘intolerable attitude of the police’ and an excise duty amounting to extortion at different check-posts from Peshawar to Torkham. The demonstrators blocked the main Ring Road for all kind of traffic creating a massive traffic jam on the main road of the city. Condemning the alleged killing of a driver by a policeman at Ring Road, the transporters demanded a death sentence for the accused. PATOA President Muhammad Noor Ahmadzai led the protest. Later, while talking to reporters, he said that despite the provincial government’s claims that Afghans on both sides of the border were equal, Afghans were being ‘killed and humiliated’ by police. They demanded of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government to provide them protection, permits and driving licences and suspend corrupt excise, customs and police officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.