In protest against the situation in Parachinar city, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district, the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) organised sit-ins in various areas of Karachi, leading to major traffic disruptions for commuters late on Thursday.
The clashes in Parachinar have killed over 130 people while reports of more than 100 children deaths emerged due to lack of medicines in the city. However, KP government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif denied the reports of the children’s death in the area.
It has been about two and a half months since the routes including the Afghan border and Peshawar-Parachinar Road have not been opened for vehicular movement.
The situation became worse after the gun attack on passenger vehicles, that ensued another round of fighting in Kurram.
Residents of Upper Kurram are in desperate straits as a result of the routes closure, which has caused significant shortages of daily essentials, including food items, and gas and fuel. The unavailability of medicines has aggravated their plight, leading to a six-day sit-in protest outside the Parachinar Press Club.
The MWM began its sit-ins and protests from Karachi Numaish Chowrangi which eventually spread to other areas including near Malir 15 and Star Gate on city’s main artery Sharea Faisal.
The Karachi Traffic Police said that the situation of traffic has been affected and the vehicles are being diverted to different routes.
In a statement issued on X, formerly Twitter, the traffic police said there is heavy flow of traffic at Main National Highway, Malir 15 to Quaidabad and roads coming and leading from Sharea Faisal to Kala Chapra.
The police said that the movement of traffic is slow, hence they are diverting the vehicles moving to Sharea Faisal from Nipa, Drigh Road and Gulistan-e-Johar to Dalmia.
MWM leader Allama Hassan Zafar Naqvi said that the people of Parachinar are under siege from all sides. He warned that if the situation persists, they will begin protesting in every divisional headquarters of Pakistan.
He said that they support sit-in in Parachinar, urging the federal and KP governments to open the closed roads.
MWM chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, in his telephonic address from Numaish, said that a human tragedy was unfolding in Kurram Agency.
“Deaths are being caused by the closure of roads due to lack of food and medicine,” said Jafri, stressing that the government should accept the demands of the people of Parachinar.
