ISLAMABAD: The closure of one side of Faqir Aipee Road, which is adjacent to Police Lines, has led to immense difficulties for the residents, who have to travel more than 10 kilometres to access hospitals and colleges located in the area.

The road next to the Police Lines, going from Pirwdhai to Srinagar Highway, is closed for security reasons. However, the other side, which starts from Srinagar Highway and moves towards Pirwdhai, is open even though it passes hospitals owned by institutions linked to the armed forces, besides a number of educational institutions.

Residents of twin cities who travel to hospitals and educational institutions in sectors H-11, H-12 and towards G-10, G-11 and G-13 sectors have been suf fering for the last three weeks, as they have to travel an additional 10-12 kilometres to reach their destination.

Faqir Aipee Road is one of the busiest roads, which connects Pirwadhai, Sabzi Mandi and Sector I-11 with Srinagar Highway.

On one side of the road is the police headquarters, and on the other side are major hospitals, such as Nescom and Paec. A number of educational institutions and even the graveyard in H-11 are also accessed via this road.

Shahid Nazeer, a resident of I-10, said that it was unfortunate that even dead bodies could not be shifted from I sectors to the H-11 graveyard using Faqir Aipee Road.

If a dead body has to be shifted from (nearby) Sector I-10 to the graveyard, which is merely a few kilometres away, people have to shift it using 9th Avenue and the Srinagar Highway, he said, adding that this added 10-12 kilometres tothe travel.

`It is strange that the police are responsible for the security of the masses, but here the masses have been suffering for the security of the police,` he said.

Mohammad Saghir, who was sitting in his vehicle in Sector I-11 where one side of Faqir Aipee Road has been blocked, said that a person hired the vehicle from Mandra [Rawalpindi], but after reaching here, he learned that the road was blocked.

`He told me to wait here as he had to go see a patient in the hospital. The person was supposed to return in half an hour, but now he has told me that it can take over an hour as he may have to walk for 10 to 15 minutes to reach the hospital,` he said.Maqbool Ahmed, another resident of Islamabad, said that the people were suffering because of the closure of the road.

`Today [Sunday], I had to take my niece to the National University of Sciences and Technology (Nust) for NET, but after reaching I-11, I came to know that the road was blocked.

So I had to travel over 10km to reach there (Nust). My niece could have missed her entry test, but thanks to Allah we managed to reach on time,` he said. He complained about the extra cost ofthis detour.

A police official, manning the roadblock, said that the exchange of heated arguments with people had become a routine.

`The road was closed after the incident of Jaffar Express in Balochistan because of secu-rity threat(s). It is quite difficult to convince people that they should travel 12 kilometres more to reach destinations which are hardly a kilometre away,` he said.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi did not attend the call. A message was sent to him, but he did not reply till filing of the news.

SSP Traffic Zeeshan Haider, while talking to Dawn, said that the road was closed because of a serious security threat. He said that the decision to close the road was unavoidable.

`However we are aware that the citizens have been suffering and educational institutions will open from Monday (today). We have principally decided to open the road and it can be opened any time,` he assured.