MANSEHRA, March 4: Tense calm prevailed here on Thursday following Wednesday's firing incident in which a police sub- inspector was shot dead and three others were injured , as the wheel jam strike of the transporters' association entered the second day.

Scenes of destruction were witnessed at the municipal bus stand where police and other officials were alleged to have gone on a rampage on Wednesday following the killing of Sub-Inspector Mohammad Safeer Khan, Additional SHO of Model Police Station Mansehra City.

A constable of Mansehra police, a constable of Frontier Constabulary (FC) and a passer-by were injured by the firing of unidentified persons.

They were on duty to stop a protest procession of transporters that was heading towards the toll plaza on the Mansehra to Abbottabad section of the Karakoram Highway to press their demand for its removal.

Witnesses said that the police officials allegedly started smashing the wagons by butting them with the armoured personnel carrier of NWFP police in the municipal bus stand and in other areas of the city. The bus stand was strewn with broken wind screens of the transporter's vehicles.

Babu Chanzeb, vice president of the Pakistan Yellow Cab Federation told reporters that more than 100 damaged vehicles have allegedly been impounded in Mansehra police lines.

He also alleged that the infuriated police and FC officials also stormed the offices of Blue Line and Dolphin coach services and badly damaged them. He said that the transporters have suffered a loss of Rs.15 million. Due to the transporters' wheel jam strike, people are facing great difficulties and the presence in the offices was very thin.

The people who reached Mansehra from Karachi and other areas of the country could not find public transport to reach their destinations in different areas of the district.

However, most of the yellow cabs appeared to be on the road on Thursday and were overcharging the passengers. Most of the drivers fearing damage to their vehicles did not dare to come on the roads. Dozens of drivers have been arrested or their vehicles damaged.

Businessmen in the fruit and vegetable market are apprehending a scarcity of fruit and vegetables and other food items. They claimed that trucks in the Punjab and Sindh markets are not being loaded for Mansehra owing to the wheel jam strike and the deteriorating law and order situation.

Now there seems to be a groundswell of anger against the police, after the way they have reacted to the killing of their colleague, and local sources said there is a likelihood of protest processions being taken out against the police by people from the mosques, after Friday prayers.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said that a person from the Kohistani ethnic group was allegedly involved in the firing incident, and has been arrested by police.

The unconfirmed reports said that a tear gas shell fired by police landed in his house in Kohistan Basti on a hilltop near Baidra Chowk, which infuriated him and he allegedly opened fire on the police below.

It was also learnt that police arrested him with the alleged weapon of offence, said to be a 7mm rifle, late on Wednesday night, but police were also making large scale arrests of transporters.