The violence and the protests remained unabated for the fourth day running – if anything their intensity and strength fiercer by a few notches. Like the day before, Tuesday also saw deaths, with three killed in a mob attack on the house of MNA Riaz Fatyana. There were other casualties at some places, their cumulative number reportedly around 50, and arson and tyre-burning was a sight quite common, cutting a vast swathe across Punjab, mirroring the people’s discontent with the federal government’s management of the agonisingly long hours of load shedding at the height of summer for the fifth year on the trot. The mercury’s rise has been relentless, hitting upper end of 40s Celsius, and with it the severity of the crisis has enhanced. So has the temper of a people enraged.
The pronounced feature of the protests was again targeting people’s own representatives – the legislators. It may or may not have been politically driven, but a ‘texting’ campaign also seems to have been unleashed to gun for the members of parliament and spare public and private property. In Islamabad when a beleaguered prime minister who was sent packing by the Supreme Court in the afternoon along with his cabinet, seemed desperate to find a solution in an energy conference, a few miles across on Rawalpindi’s Murree Road protesters were going berserk, tearing down and burning whatever caught their fancy.
Reports of violent clashes kept pouring in from Faisalabad, Burewala, Gujranwala, Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Chakwal, Chiniot, Kamalia, Rawat and several other cities and towns on Tuesday. The angry protesters, especially the power loom workers rendered jobless in Faisalabad, continued to pelt stones at vehicles and damaging public and private properties. Police also fired teargas in Khanewal to disperse brickbatting protesters attempting to torch the offices of the local power company.
In Chakwal, load shedding of up to 22 hours caused a shortage of drinking water. The situation in Chakwal and Talagang was even worse because of power outages. In Toba Tek Singh, at least three people were killed and several others injured in indiscriminate gunfire by PML-Q MNA Riaz Fatyana’s guards when the enraged people protesting against unusually prolonged duration of load shedding besieged his residence located in Kamalia. The infuriated demonstrators, running berserk after reckless firing by Fatyana’s guards that resulted in three deaths, set six police vans on fire. The situation was so bad that an additional contingent of Elite Force had to be rushed to Kamalia from Toba Tek Singh.
Police registered cases against 2,600 demonstrators who ran amok in Faisalabad and Sargodha. Hundreds came out on GT road in Rawat, near Islamabad and blocked the road by burning tyres and placing other hurdles. Demonstrations were also held in different areas of Punjab, including Lahore, Gujranwala and Jhang, suspending vehicular traffic for many hours.
Meanwhile, the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has announced not to pay any taxes for the coming three days besides giving a three-day dead line to government to end the unbearable load shedding. In Sialkot, hundreds of perturbed traders, industrialists and exporters staged a peaceful demonstration Tuesday as GEPCO stepped up load shedding to up to 20 hours with blackout extending to almost the whole night and most of the day – resulting in a state of paralysis in business, trade and civic activity.
Public fury knows no bounds
