Pakistan: Police lathi-charge crowd which stormed truck with subsidised wheat flour

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 15 (ANI): The police on Saturday lathi-charged a crowd, which stormed a truck loaded with subsidised wheat flour bags and pelted its driver and policemen with stones, reported Dawn newspaper.

This happened after people who had lined up to purchase flour bags raised slogans against the Pakistan government and broke the queue. After stones were pelted at the truck driver and policemen, they retaliated and started charging the people. The truck driver managed to rush the truck to the assistant commissioner’s office in Oghi.

The deputy commissioner later changed the distribution schedule of the subsidised flour and dispatched the consignment to Shergar and its adjoining localities, according to Dawn newspaper.

The locals demanded the government to enhance the weekly flour quota for the people of Oghi.

“The district food department supplies only 670 wheat flour bags of 20kg to people in Oghi and its suburbs, which needs to be doubled to meet the local requirements,” a consumer demanded as quoted by Dawn newspaper.

Amid the deepening food crisis in Pakistan, people were seen chasing a wheat truck on their bikes, risking their lives to get a bag of wheat.

Sharing the video, Professor Sajjad Raja, chairman of National Equality Party JKGBL, wrote that “this is not a motorcycle rally, but people in Pakistan are chasing a truck loaded with flour, in the hope that they will buy just one packet of flour. Do we have any future in Pakistan? This video is just a glimpse of what is happening in Pakistan”.

In a video shared on social media, some people riding a motorcycle are seen chasing a truck carrying sacks of flour, and people can be seen chasing the vehicle to buy the lot. One of the chasers coming closer to the wheat truck shows the note and asks for a packet of flour.

He also advised residents in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to open their eyes. People in PoK have been at the receiving end of discrimination for over seven decades and the situation continues to remain so even today.

“This isn’t a motorcycle rally, people in #Pakistan are desperately chasing a truck carrying wheat flour, hoping to buy just 1 bag. Ppl of #JammuAndKashmir should open their eyes. Lucky not to be #Pakistani & still free to take decisions about our future. Do we have any future with Pakistan?” he tweeted.

Pakistan is facing its worst-ever flour crisis with parts of the country reporting a shortage of wheat and stampedes reported from several areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces.

Tens of thousands spend hours daily to get the subsidized bags of flour that are already short in supply in the market, according to a report in The Express Tribune.