QUETTA, Aug 29: A strike by buses and coaches continued for the third day on Sunday. The protesters warned that if the authorities did not initiate negotiations they would observe a wheel-jam strike from Monday. They parked their buses and coaches in a long line on Sariab road.

Speaking to members of the All-Balochistan Transporters Action Committee on the premises of transport offices at the Sariab road, Mir Hikmat Lehri demanded that the government should allow the transporters to establish personal terminals like in other three provinces.

Mr Lehri demanded that the government should re-open the satellite town bus-stand and warned that they would neither shift their booking offices nor park the coaches in the new bus-stand at Hazarganji.

He criticized the unfair allotments in the new bus-stand by the Quetta Development Authority and alleged that favouritism was the sole criteria. He said that the new site lacked facilities as neither the booking offices were constructed nor the parking places were defined.

Meanwhile, the PPP acting president of the Balochistan chapter, Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, and Abdur Razzak Langoo of the BNP-Mengal visited the protestors camp and assured them of party's support and urged the government to hold talks with transporters to resolve the issue through negotiations.