Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen (MWM) staged sit-ins in various areas of Karachi in protest against the situation in Parachinar city in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resulting in severe traffic disruption for late commuters on Thursday.
More than 130 people have been killed in clashes in Parachinar, while reports of more than 100 children have died due to lack of medicine in the city. However, KP government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif denied the reports of children being killed in the area.
Afghan border and other routes including Peshawar Parachinar Road have not been opened for vehicular traffic for almost two and a half months.
The situation worsened after the gunmen attacked the passenger vehicles, after which another round of fighting broke out in Kurram.
As a result of the closure of the roads, the residents of Balai Kurram are facing severe hardship, which has led to severe shortage of daily essentials including food items, gas and fuel. Non-availability of medicines has added to their plight leading to a six-day dharna outside the Parachinar Press Club.
The MWM started its sit-ins and protests from Karachi Tzaam Chowrangi which eventually spread to other areas including Stargate near Malir 15 and Shariah Faisal.
Karachi Traffic Police says that the traffic situation has been affected and the vehicles are being diverted to different routes.
In a statement released on X, which was formerly Twitter, the traffic police said there was heavy flow of traffic on the Main National Highway, Malir 15 to Quaidabad and Sharia Faisal to Kala Chhapra.
Police say that the traffic flow is slow, so they are diverting the vehicles going towards Shaara Faisal from Napa, Drug Road and Gulistan Johar towards Dalmia.
MWM leader Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi said that the people of Parachinar are under siege from all sides. He warned that if this situation continues, they will start protests in every divisional headquarters of Pakistan.
He said he supported the sit-in in Parachinar, demanding the federal and KP governments to open the blocked roads.
MWM chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri said in his telephonic address to Nomesh that a human tragedy is taking place in Karam Agency.
Jafari said that deaths were taking place due to road closures due to lack of food and medicine, urging the government to acknowledge the demands of the people of Parachinar.