KARACHI: Protesting truckers block highway for six hours
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 25: The vehicular traffic on the National Highway remained suspended for over six hours on Friday following attack on a convoy of dumpers by bandits during which cleaner of a dumper was killed. Truckers, demanding arrest of the bandits, blocked the highway until police persuaded them to clear the way.Thousands of people remained stranded on both sides of the venue of protest, about four kilometres from Razzakabad, since the incident took place at around 3am.
Many employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills and Port Bin Qasim Authority were among the stranded people who could not reach their place of work while vehicles stood bumper-to-bumper right from Quaidabad up to Razzakabad. The same situation was witnessed on the Ghakkar Crossing section of the highway.
Police said that a gang of four dacoits riding two motorcycles intercepted a convoy of dumpers, carrying sand for the Lyari Expressway, near Lashari Goth. The gang held the drivers and cleaners hostage at gunpoint and deprived them of their cash and personal belongings. During their looting spree, the outlaws also opened fire, killing one of their hostages, later identified as Zuhair Khan, 20. Hailing from the NWFP, the victim worked as cleaner. His body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where sources said the deceased had received a single bullet that pierced through his skull.
The murder provoked protest by the drivers and cleaners who parked their vehicles in the middle of the road to block traffic movement at the Lashari Goth section of the highway. They also spread heaps of sand to consolidate the blockade.
Later, a heavy contingent of police, along with the concerned SHO and DSP, proceeded to the trouble spot and held negotiations with the protesters.
TPO Bin Qasim Aleem Jaffery also reached there at around 6:30am to ease out the situation. He said unidentified protesters were booked for blocking the highway as their act had caused a great deal of inconvenience to commuters.
