BOONI: Traders of Booni bazaar on Saturday protested against the district administration and police for what they called harassment of shopkeepers under the garb of COVID-19 precautions and forcing them to undergo test and remain on quarantine.
The traders gathered at Booni Chowk where their representatives said the administration and police were unnecessarily forcing the shopkeepers to undergo COVID-19 test and sealing their shops.
“You sleep in the police station and after having deep sleep wake up and come to bazaar and round up 10 shopkeepers and take them to quarantine centre and declare them corona,” said Muhammad Shafi, the president of Booni traders’ association, while addressing the protesters.
He said in order to fulfil its target of doing test the administration was forcibly collecting samples from Booni bazaar instead of also covering other areas such as Sonoghur, Awi and Parwak.
He warned that if the police continued the practice of taking traders for testing only from Booni bazaar they would resist and in case of any incident the police would be held responsible.
The protesters warned that if the administration continued its highhandedness and harass the shopkeepers, the bazaar would also be closed and even “an ant would not be allowed to move around.”
The protesters were of the view that due to the coronavirus pandemic business was already down and the shopkeepers were facing huge losses but the administration was creating hurdles for the shopkeepers in order to show its efficiency in front of the authorities concerned.