RAHIM YAR KHAN: Local traders held a rally at the GPO Chowk here on Monday following a clash erupting between shopkeepers and Municipal Committee (MC) staff when the later started sealing shops in Jinnah Bazaar and its adjoining streets during an anti-encroachment operation.

The shopkeepers from different bazaars of the city gathered at the main intersection and protested against the MC and district administration.

Speaking to the traders, Anjuman Taaajran city president Azman Asghar Chaudhry and chairman Haji Islam Noorani said that the adminis-tration did not take the traders on board with regard to the anti-encroachment campaign.

`They never gave us any policy or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for running the shops,` the president claimed.

He alleged that on Monday the MC staff entered the bazaar and started using abusive language against the traders and pushing women customers out of the shops, before sealing 15 outlets.

The traders leaders alleged that the MC and administration staff demanded Rs100,000 to Rs200,000 from shopkeepers for allowing them to reopen the sealed shops.

They also alleged that the traders wanted to remove encroachments voluntarily but the officials launched the operation to mint money.

They claimed that they have proof of MC employees receiving bribes from shopkeepers.They further alleged that Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Irfan Anwer sealed a dry fruit shop for seven days and got dry fruit worth Rs100,000 from the owner,andwasdemandingRs600,000 more for de-sealing it.

The traders` leaders warned of shutting down the entire city and starting courting arrest s to fill prisons if the MC administration did notstop the anti-encroachment operation.

District president of Anjuman Taajran, Abdul Raouf Mukhtar, told this correspondent that he and secretary general Anwaar Najimhad requested the ADCG to postpone the anti-encroachment drive till after Eid, but he refused to accept their suggestion.

He said the shopkeepers who were earning their livelihood in the holy month of Ramazan were being treated unfairly by the administration.

When contacted, ADCG Irfan Anwar told Dawn that a massive anti-encroachment operation was launched on the directions of the Punjab government. During the operation, he said, all major bazaars and roads were cleared of permanent encroachments.

He said during the operation when the MC staff went to Jamia Qadria Bazaar, they found out that merchandise of traders was placed on the road in front of a number of shops.

He said when the staff took action against the shops, some miscreants resisted the opera-tion and pelted them with stones and bricks, leaving a staffer, Imran, injured.

The ADCG said the bribe allegations levelled by traders against his driver and personal assistant would be probed. However, he said that the accused driver has not been working with him for the last two months, while the PA has also been removed from his position.

He said both the complainantandthe accusedhavebeen called for a detailed probe on Tuesday (today).

The officer claimed that the allegations seemed to be a blackmailing tactic and aimed at saving the miscreants from legal action.

However, he said, law will take its due course against the hooligans who injured an MC staffer during the operation and any official found involved in corruption would be penalised after a thorough probe.