Countrywide strike: JUI-F workers hold up PTI convoys for hours

Islamabad-bound convoys stranded on GT Road, Motorway; protesters dispersed peacefully by 4pm

GUJRANWALA/ PESHAWAR/ LAHORE/ CHARSADDA: Activists of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) set up roadblocks and took out protests in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as part of a countrywide transport strike on Sunday, leaving Islamabad-bound supporters and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stranded for several hours in many places.

The strike call was given in response to the killing of JUI-F Sindh secretary general Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro in Sukkur a day earlier.



In Peshawar, JUI-F workers set up a roadblock on the Grand Trunk Road near Ring Road, halting the movement of a convoy of PTI supporters who were trying to reach the federal capital for their party’s much hyped rally. In Mardan, JUI-F activists blocked traffic near College Chowk before moving up towards the motorway interchange at Rashakai, holding up PTI convoys  coming in from Shangla, Swat, Dir and Mardan.

The JUI-F protesters similarly blocked the Nisata Interchange of the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway in Charsadda from 8am to 4pm, holding up traffic and forcing PTI convoys to take GT Road to Islamabad.

Upon reaching Nowshera, PTI convoys were again held up by JUI-F protesters who had blocked GT Road for all kinds of traffic near Akora Khattak. Hundreds of PTI activists remained stranded for hours as a result.

Elsewhere in Upper Dir, Swabi, Kohat, Hangu, DI Khan and Tank, JUI-F activists staged demonstrations and chanted slogans against the government over its failure to nab Dr Soomro’s killers. Protests were also staged in Karak and Mansehra, where scuffles were reported between JUI-F and PTI activists.

JUI-F’s Abbottabad, Battagram and Haripur chapters also took out rallies.

Despite confrontations with PTI workers in some places, JUI-F protesters by and large dispersed peacefully by Sunday afternoon. Even though they were held up for hours, PTI convoys from K-P were able to reach Islamabad without incident.

K-P Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak led a big procession from his native Nowshehra district while his cabinet members, including ministers, advisers and MPs led similar processions from different cities and towns throughout the province.

The main PTI procession, headed by the PTI’s Peshawar district president Yaseen Khalil, started from Peshawar’s Ring Road. Besides others, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Ziaullah Afridi also led thousands of their electorates to the main procession.

Convoy pelted with eggs, tomatoes

Unidentified suspects attacked a PTI convoy near Gujranwala with eggs and tomatoes as it made its way to Islamabad. Eyewitnesses said five men sprang up before the PTI convoy near the Pindi Bypass. PTI workers were able to catch one of the alleged miscreants, they said, adding that the rest of the attackers managed to flee.

PTI’s workers and leaders from Punjab made their way to Islamabad in separate but smaller convoys – a stark departure from the strategy employed for the August 14 rally. The new strategy was adopted to ensure that PTI workers reach Islamabad at all costs amid reports that party workers were being arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2014.