KASUR: The district administration and traders locked horns over the removal of encroachments at the food street and Adda Lalyani, throwing traffic out of gear for hours on Thursday.

Tradersresistedtheanti-encroachment drive and announced a complete shutdown in the city on Saturday (today). On the direction of District Coordination Officer Amara Khan, Assistant Commissioner Amna Rafiq got removed illegal projections of shops and other encroachments at the food street.

The owners of some food points resisted them. The team faced stiff resistance from the owner and staff of an eatery at Lalyani Adda.

Traders from Railway Road and adjacent markets gathered at the scene and chanted slogans againstthe district administration.

Later, traders and the administration held a round of negotiations in which traders tried to convince the administration that the construction of the building was legal. There was traffic jam at Adda Lalyani Chowk for over an hour.

Ms Rafiq, however, gave the owner to prove the legality of the building in one day.

She told Dawn the demolished shops were on the route of Muharram procession. She also said that encroachments were being removed in the entire district and operation wouldcontinueevenafterMuharram.

She said that 30 illegal buildings, including shops, had been demolished on Thursday on Raiwind Road near bypass. She added that the operation would continue without any discrimination and no pressure would be absorbed.

SUICIDE ATTEMPT: Two brothers suffered serious burns onThursday when they allegedly set a room they were hiding in on fire to avoid arrest on drug pushing charges at Baghwala locality, in the limits of Khudian police station.

The police said a team headed by Sub-inspector Rasheed Shahzad raided hideout of two drug pushers Umar Farooq and his brother Usman.

Seeing the police, the brothers sprinkled liquor on the noor of the room they were hiding in and set it on fire, the police claimed.

The fire soon engulfed the room, leaving the two suspects trapped inside. The police, after hectic efforts, rescued the suspects who suffered serious burns and shifted them to hospital for treatment. No police personnel got injured in the incident.

The police entered a case against the suspects for attempting suicide and selling drugs.

According to police, the both suspects were already booked in two cases for selling drugs.