BAHAWALPUR: The death of a seminary studentin a road accident on the National Highway due to the alleged negligence of a bus driver on Wednesday sparked a massive protest leading to blockade of the KarachiLahore-Peshawar (KLP) highway near Khangah Sharif, about 30kms from here, in the limits of Sammsatta police station.

According to the officials of Rescue 1122, police and National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP), deceased a seminary student, Ahmed (15), boarded a Bahawalpur-bound bus from Ahmedpur East from the Gullan De Hatti stop.

As the bus reached Khangah Sharif stop, the boy asked the driver to stop the bus, but to no avail. As the boy attempted to disembark from the running bus, he fell on the road and died because of critical head injury. The bus driver managedtonee the scene.

On receipt of information of the incident, a large number of students of the seminary, where the deceased boy was enrolled, along with those of nearby schools gathered on the highway and blocked its both tracks for traffic.

The protesting students demanded registration of a murder case and arrest of bus driver and conductor.

Due to the road blockade, long queues of vehicles, including trailers, buses, vans and cars were witnessed on both tracks of the dual carriageway, creating inconvenience tothousands ofstrandedpassengers including women and children for hours.

Meanwhile, police officials continued dialogues with the protesting students, who were assured of arrest of the the driver and conductor.

After the assurance, the demonstrators agreed to disperse and the police opened the highway for the vehicular traffic.

According to district police spokesperson Umer Salim, Sammsatta police station registered an FIR (No.614/23) under section 322 of the PPC against the fleeing driver of the bus (No LES-7989) on the complaint of the deceased boy`s uncle, Javed, and impounded the bus.

The bus driver could not be arrested till the filing of the story.

REPRIMANDED: Lodhran Deputy Commissioner Abdul Rauf Mahar reprimanded the members of polio teams and union council officials for their unsatisfactory performance during the on-going anti-polio campaign across the district.

According to a handout, the DC, in an official letter, said the performance of polio field teams has been found unsatisfactory during the monitoring at many locations in the district.

The DC asked the assistant commissioners concerned, health officials and UC staff to strictly monitor the performance of the mobile polio teams and those found negligent must be taken to task.

In Lodhran district, as many as 374,000 children would be administered polio vaccine drops by 144 mobile and 68 other health teams.