Islamabad, Nov. 22 (TNS): several protesters and security personnel were injured on Wednesday when the protesters staging a sit-in at the Faizabad Interchange resorted to pelting stones at security forces deployed in the area.
As a result of the scuffle, four FC and police personnel, including SP Saddar Amir Niazi, were injured.
Police and FC personnel deployed in the area have been put on alert and extra reinforcements, including armoured personnel carriers, have been summoned to the area and deployed at IJP road.
The clerics, while addressing to activists, vowed not to leave the venue until their demands are met.
Faizabad sit-in by a religious party entered its seventeenth day on Wednesday and prolonged protest has compounded miseries of people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad and surrounding areas.
Blockade of main entry and exit points of the twin cities and traffic diversions are resulting in traffic mess, forcing commuters to spend hours on roads.
Besides serious disruption to business activities in some areas; office goers, students, daily wage earners and patients are worst victims of the on-going phenomenon.
The Government has made several attempts to resolve the issue peacefully and through negotiations but so far these have not borne any fruit because of rigid stance of the protestors.
The Interior Minister after a meeting with Ulema and Mashaikh formed a Committee to help resolve the stand-off peaceful.
The Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court have also taken notice of the sit-in.
