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Students, office goers worst sufferers
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
By Asim Hussain
LAHORE
RESIDENTS of DHA particularly of phase III and IV Tuesday witnessed severe traffic troubles after police clamped a blockade of the area surrounding Senator Latif Khosa’s residence in X Block to ensure seven-day house arrest of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
The blockade of a complete section of Ghazi Road and other roads linking to it played havoc in the area as all the traffic diverting from the Ghazi Road clogged lanes inside residential blocks and people were stuck for hours.
People could not go to offices, markets and schools in time due to the traffic mess.
Ahmad Raza, an employee of a telecom company told The News that he could not reach his office in Gulberg due to traffic mess in the street outside his house in Z block. Scores of schoolchildren could not attend schools as their parents preferred to keep them at home for traffic troubles. A few schools of the locality announced to remain closed.
Worried parents of those children who go to schools outside the DHA were the most panicked because their children could not return on time after attending schools.
In the wake of the trouble and arrests of PPP workers who set fire to tyres and a car, the traffic was blocked on the roads leading to the DHA. Agitated parents kept ringing to schools and to the transporters to find about the well being of their children till the time they managed to reach homes.
Mrs Lodhi, a resident of sector CC, said “I feel like going mad as her 12-year old daughter was late for one hour from her school in Gulberg.’
Although a section of main Ghazi Road had been closed down for the last two days since the arrival of Benazir Bhutto in the City, but the blockade was extended to link roads and extended to a longer portion since Monday night following the orders of her house-arrest. Large number of police personnel in riot gear and the new city traffic police set up barricades on the road and signalled the traffic to return.
The situation actually worsened after midday when some enthusiastic workers resisted the police blockade to get into the barred area and set to fire old tyres and rubble, causing an uproar and trouble. The police baton charged them and chased them into the streets which also sent alarm in the otherwise quiet neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, some unknown people set ablaze a Suzuki car on the road dividing Y and Z blocks where the police had set the maximum limit for media. Its CNG cylinder exploded with a bang causing panic in the area and spreading rumours in the City that a bomb had exploded near Khosa House, where Benazir Bhutto was kept under house arrest.
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