Bad planning: Karachi in a jam as MWM protests

Most of the roads around city’s hub were sealed.

KARACHI: The Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), the religious political party representing the Shia community of the city, took to the roads to protest against the target killings in Karachi.

The MWM leaders warned the provincial and federal governments of country-wide protests if the tide of targeted killings in the city was not stemmed.

MWM’s central spokesperson Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi in his address to the rally said that Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah have failed to stop the targeted killings of the Shia community in the city. “We have gathered here to raise our voice for those who have fallen prey to target killings and the families of the martyrs in the city are looking at us to raise our voices for them,” he said, adding that they were protesting not only for the Shia people killed but also for the other victims of violence in the city, regardless of their religion and sect. “We warn the provincial chief minister and governor and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that if the target killings are not stopped and Karachi’s peace is not restored, then we will take our protest to a national level.”

MWM deputy-general secretary Allama Ameen Shaheedi in his address said that the party had taken to the roads to restore the peace of Karachi. “The elements that are behind the target killings should be named and shamed on the media,” he said.

Traffic closed

All the roads leading to the Chief Minister House and the Governor House were sealed with containers and buses to keep the participants of the rally from entering the ‘Red Zone.’

The MWM had announced to hold a sit-in outside the CM house a day before the rally. To prevent that, law enforcement agencies sealed all the roads leading to the CM house and the Governor House on Sunday. A heavy contingent of the police was also deployed on the MA Jinnah Road and the areas sounding the CM House and Governor House.

The rally’s participants gathered at Numaish Chowrangi, from where they marched on the MA Jinnah Road, and passing through Saddar’s Electronic Market on the Garden Road, entered the Fawara Chowk near the Governor House. From there they headed towards the Shaheen Complex and staged a sit-in outside the Supreme Court Registry on the MR Kiyani Road.

Saddar SP Syed Salman Hussain told The Express Tribune that they deployed around 300 to 350 police personnel to provide security to the rally’s participants. “We had to seal the roads in the path of the rally to avoid any intrusion and any untoward incident,” he said, adding that they specified a path for the rally’s participants.

The closure of the roads caused traffic problems for the commuters at Saddar and the surrounding areas of the sit-in as traffic police sergeants tried to direct confused motorists at various intersections and thoroughfares. Anwar Khan, a traffic police sergeant at one of the barriers at Saddar, was himself unaware of which roads were open and which were not. “Take the Preedy Street straight towards the New MA Jinnah Road, it is open,” he said, directing traffic at Garden Road. However, the Preedy Street was also closed with a water tanker. At the Abdullah Haroon Road, hundreds of vehicles were stranded as drivers tried to go in the wrong direction to reach their destinations.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2014.