PTI protest cuts Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's road link with Punjab
Containers placed on motorways and key routes have halted passenger travel and supplies of petrol, vegetables and medicines.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s road link with Punjab has been severed days before a planned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf protest, stranding passengers and cutting off supplies of petrol, vegetables and medicines, Express News and UrduPoint reported on Wednesday.
Express News said the Punjab government closed motorways and other roads leading into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by placing shipping containers across them. Among the routes blocked are the Motorway, the Grand Trunk Road, and points at Khushal Garh in Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Haripur and Galyat. UrduPoint carried the same account, saying the land route between the two provinces had been cut.
The closures were imposed ahead of a PTI protest announced for 27 September, the reports said. Inter-provincial bus services have been suspended, and vehicles are parked at terminals. Trucks carrying vegetables, medicines and other food items from Punjab are stuck, and supplies have stopped.
Petrol supply from Punjab has been interrupted, and residents fear a fuel shortage. Citizens were quoted as saying the government should allow goods transport so that food shortages do not occur.
No official statement from the Punjab government or PTI was immediately available in the reports. PTI has said it will not abandon its planned long march until its demands are met, Express News noted.
Neither report said when the roads would reopen. The blockade affects movement in both directions, with trucks carrying essential goods also unable to cross provincial boundaries. The reports did not give further details on the party's demands.
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