PESHAWAR: The police arrested 19 protesting employees of the Worker Welfare Board (WWB) after baton-charging and teargassing them outside the provincial assembly`s building here on Tuesday.

Around 300 contractual staff members of the WWB, including women, had turned up in the provincial capital from across the province to demand regularisation of their services in light of the `Supreme Court orders`.

They first demonstrated outside the Peshawar Press Club`s premises and then marched through the Sher Shah Suri Road to reachtheSurayPulChowk outside the provincial assembly, where they blocked part of the Khyber Road.

The artery remained closed for more than two hours after which the police personnel baton-charged protesters and fired tear gas at them to disperse them leaving several injured.

All WWB Contract Employees Association president Younas Marwat told Dawn that 17 of the protesters were injured in the police`s crackdown and were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital.

He also claimed the arrest of 28 protesters though the police put the number at 19.

Mr Marwat said the protesters, who dispersed af ter the police`s action, would stage another protest today (Wednesday) to demand their service regularisation.

In a statement, commissioner of Peshawar division Riaz Khan Mehsud said the district administration had banned protests on the Khyber Road under Section 144 since April 19, but the WWB employees violated the ban and thus, causingroad closures and the `worst gridlock` in the city to the misery of the people.

He said that action would be taken against the arrested protesters under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.-Bureau Report