Isloo confused, Pindi unwelcoming

All schools in the twin cities were closed, attendance in offices remained thin as marchers pour in.

ISLAMABAD:

Islamabad the beautiful became Islamabad the empty in anticipation of the arrival of a “million” people from all over Pakistan. With the authorities blocking a number of roads, people chose to stay inside, abandoning roads and markets.

The Jinnah Avenue was completely blocked from F-9 Chowk to D-Chowk, with the traffic being diverted to Fazal-e-Haq Road.

Though all markets in the city apart from Blue Area — where the long march participants were to gather — remained open, attendance remained low.

In Rawalpindi, businesses along the Benazir Bhutto Road (BB Road), including petrol pumps, remained closed. This led to the shortage of public transport, but it was not as if people could use them, with the city being virtually cut off from Islamabad.

The Grand Trunk (GT) Road was blocked at the Soan Bridge, blocking traffic to to Rawat, Gujar Khan, Sohawa, Jhelum, Kharian, Gujrat and other cities of Punjab. The BB Road was blocked with barbed wires, containers and trucks at Faizabad.

People who wanted to join the long march in Islamabad were allowed to pass into the capital city on foot using the Double Road near the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. From there, they used 9th Avenue to make it to Jinnah Avenue.

Educational institutes in both cities remained close, along with a number of private offices. Even though the government had not officially announced a holiday, attendance in public offices remained extremely low, with many people opting not to venture on to the streets.

A rally in Faizabad marches towards Blue Area (top); access to the D Chowk was blocked early in the day due to it being the proposed rally site. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD JAVAID/EXPRESS

Earlier in the day, there was speculation about a potential showdown between the police and the marchers near the Faizabad Flyover, where thousands had braved the cold on Sunday night for a sit-in protest about the Shia Hazara killings in Quetta.

The tension was slight yet obvious. But when the sun set, the crowds of people at Faizabad still stood waiting for the long march rally to arrive. (It would take another few hours for them to reach.)

Faizabad was inconsequential at best during the day and sluggish at worst. The day started slowly with Qadri’s recorded speeches blaring from a Minhajul Quran International (MQI) camp set up near the main Faizabad Bus Stand en route to Islamabad.

For several hours before noon, only a few hundred people stood over the bridge, gazing toward the Southern horizon — from where the long march procession was going to appear.

Back in Pindi, trapped motorists came out of their vehicles and staged small protests against the authorities. “It is not understandable as to why the GT Road has been blocked so early,” said Rafaqat Ali who wanted to go Lahore to attend a funeral.

In the afternoon, possibility of a clash arose when the police denied access to Islamabad via Faizabad to two convoys — consisting of some 2,500 MQI activists from Rawalpindi.

The activists were ready to remove the containers and march on through Faizabad, MQI Rawalpindi chapter coordinator Sohail Abbasi said. But the decision was changed later, following negotiations with the administration.

The rally, which included buses, vans, private cars and motorcycles, took the Double Road to join the designated rally grounds at Blue Area in Islamabad. The rally brought excitement to the people at Faizabad who by that time were regularly asking each other about Qadri’s whereabouts.

After that, a stream of local mini-vans filled with MQI supporters and sporadic bike rallies kept moving toward the federal capital on the Islamabad Expressway, which was opened for movement by the Islamabad Traffic Police.

By 5:30pm, the all-male crowd at Faizabad had swelled to a few thousands and people were seen lining up the sides of the Expressway near Koral Chowk and Khanna Bridge to welcome the long march.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2013.