http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-9-2004_pg7_17

Daily Times - Site Edition                                      Friday, October 08, 2004

Mob stops closure of porn CD shops on Hall Road

By Aayan Ali

LAHORE : A large crowd beat back a city government team that tried to close shops selling pornography on Hall Road on Saturday.

Some city government employees ended up in hospital with minor injuries and members of the crowd fired in the air, forcing the raiding team to retreat, according to official sources.

A city government official, who was part of the raiding team and was injured by the mob, alleged that the Hall Road Traders Union (HRTU) was behind the action. A complaint from the city government has reached Qila Gujjar Singh police station against the union on charges of attempted murder, terrorism and interfering in official matters.

“We are registering the case on the complaint of Mr Khalid Sultan (district coordination officer),” Cantt Superintendent of Police Dr Waseem told Daily Times.

The official said union members had approached the city government a couple of weeks ago and asked it to remove encroachments, resolve a row over parking stands and close porn shops.

The encroachment and parking problems were resolved, and a team of community development officials and Civil Defence policemen gathered at Hall Road on Saturday to tackle the porn problem. However, when the team started raiding shops in a Hall Road plaza, around 300 people gathered and started shouting slogans against the local government.

“We tried to talk to them, but the mob attacked us,” the official said. The mob smashed the windows of cars and attacked some of the raiding party members, some of whom landed in Services Hospital . Some members of the crowd fired in the air, forcing the raiding team to retreat.

The official said the union had asked Mr Sultan, the DCO, to clear Hall Road of porn CDs, but the union was hoping only for action against the porn sellers who had set up stalls on footpaths.

“They wanted the crackdown because the vendors outside were taking customers from the plazas. Once the team started raiding porn shops inside the two plazas, the union immediately turned against us because it damaged their own business,” he said.

Pornographic CDs are available for less than a hundred rupees each at Hall Road . Some of the shops are just behind schools and colleges. A porn CD vendor said his customers were mostly young boys, but included college-going girls.