Traders in Gilgit-Baltistan city protest repeated incidents of burglary, unlawfulness

GILGIT: Local traders in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Gilgit city staged a protest against repeated incidents of burglary and unlawfulness in the area.

The protest was held on Thursday, the day when general elections were being conducted in Pakistan. These traders complained about the unlawful activities that were happening due to security lapse and irresponsible behaviour of the security agencies.

A local businessman from Gilgit City said, "We are demanding justice from the security forces or the administration. They need to present the culprit before us. If I am paying taxes regularly, then me and my property must be protected, then why are these events happening?".

Describing a recent incident, when his shop was robbed, the businessman said, "I have been doing business in this area from at least last six years, and within a matter of 20 minutes the robbers were able to enter my shop and leave after looting everything."

"Regarding the incident, we had contacted defence agencies, we thought that they will help us but most of them did nothing. No one who holds a significant position has met with us regarding the matter. This is not the first time any such incident is happened. At least 12 incidents like this have occurred previously," he added.

Another trader from the area said, "The incident that happened with our fellow trader is not the first one, and even after 24 hours of it, no one has visited here to listen to our demands. No one has asked our friend about the losses, he has suffered".

Stating the unified demand of all traders, the businessman said, "We are asked to pay money to officials under the name of protection money. Then why are we not being provided adequate security? And if they cannot protect us from these incidents, then they must compensate us for our losses. We must be assured, that we will be protected or compensated, but nothing like this has happened till now. Hence, we are forced to put our demands forward by protesting".

A shoe trader from the area stated, "We are forced to pay security money on time, if we delay it by even five days, they seal our shops, and this is what happens despite our timely payments. If they cannot give us security, it's better that they stop taking money from us, we will hire private security. The administration has kept, old aged guards for our security, most of them are above 75 years of age and do not even have guns to protect us. I believe that this is a mere wastage of our time, money and resources".