The authorities have placed thousands of shipping containers on the roads to block the entry of protesters to the capital Islamabad. Opposition parties in the country have announced an anti-government march dubbed as ‘Azadi March’ that will start from various parts of the country on October 27 and converge in Islamabad next Thursday, Oct 31.
Shipping firms accused authorities in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of forcibly seizing containers to put them on the roads to block protesters from reaching the capital.
“Over the last three days, police have forcibly taken possession of more than 3,000 containers in different parts of the country,” Hakimullah Khan, president of the Containers Association in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.
Meanwhile, the transporters in Karachi have refused to provide passengers buses for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) led ‘Azadi March’ and sit-ins.
President of Muttahida Transport, Badshah Afridi, told media that a delegation of JUI-F met him and asked to provide passengers buses for the protest march beginning from Karachi.
Afridi said that the transport alliance has refused to provide vehicles for the march and sit-ins. He further said that the protests will only cause damages to the country and the vehicles can only be used for public transportation facility but not for sit-ins. The president of the transport alliance added that he had also asked other transporters not to provide buses to the protestors and to support the government.
