Observer Report
The authorities have placed thousands of shipping containers on the roads to block the entry of protesters to the capital Islamabad, transporters said on Saturday.
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.
Khan claimed that container seizures have caused a huge financial loss to their owners. But authorities pushed back at the claims. “We have not taken a single container by force,” Hamza Shafqaat, Islamabad’s deputy commissioner, told media.
“We have hired all containers from the owners and we will pay for them,” he added.
