Security measures: R A Bazaar road closed to traffic

Decision taken by GHQ owning to rising security concerns.

RAWALPINDI:

The RA Bazaar Road, the shortest road link connecting Chungi No. 22, RA Bazaar and Tench Bhata localities to Saddar and the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) is being closed off by military authorities, it has been learnt.

Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Hussian was not available for comment; however, a senior RCB official told The Express Tribune that the GHQ has taken the decision on its own owing to rising security concerns. He said that GHQ had planned to barricade the road earlier after three suicide blasts took place on it in 2007 and 2008. He suggested that the decision was finally taken since an alternate road is now available.

In a similar move around four years ago, the military authorities in Rawalpindi closed off another road linking the busy Murree Road to the Mall Road near the Ministry of Defence building in Saddar.

When contacted, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA from the area, Chadhry Muhammad Ayyaz, said the GHQ had deferred the plan to close the RA Bazzar Road till March 10, saying the final decision had to be taken after negotiations with public representatives.

He said Cantonment area Station Commander Brigadier Zamanullah Niazi had talked to the GHQ Quarter Master General (QMG) about putting off the plan for the time being, while also proposing that the military authorities restrict public transport on the road and allow private transport to pass.

The MPA said around two years ago when the military authorities sought financial support from the Punjab government for rehabilitation of cantonment roads, he, along with other public representatives, had asked the QMG keep the road open to traffic if they wanted the funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2012.