MANSEHRA, March 15: Police on Tuesday arrested the president and another office-bearer of a transporters’ union after they thrashed a pickup driver for violating the wheel-jam strike call in Battagram on Tuesday. The drivers union of the passenger pickup vehicles is observing a wheel-jam strike for the last two weeks and demanding increase in fares on the plea that they are plying their vehicles in the hilly parts of Battagram.

Following increase in petroleum prices the transporters had immediately increased the fares, but they did not withdraw half of the increase when oil prices were cut. On public complaints, the district administration has started taking action against the striking transporters.

Sources said that the union’s president Kareem Shah and office-bearer Nawab Shah stopped a transporter from Thakot and beat him for running his pickup despite the strike. Taking action, police arrested both of the union members.

People of the hilly area said that the pickup vehicles in Battagram were already charging more than the fares fixed by the administration. They said that increase in fares would put an extra burden on the already poverty-stricken people.