MANSEHRA, Aug 9: Some pick-up drivers on Tuesday manhandled passengers and beat other drivers who refused to join their wheel-jam strike against the traffic police who fined them for overcharging on Mansehra-Ghazikot road.

“The drivers pulled the passengers out of the pick-up vehicles and beat their own colleagues for refusing to join the strike,” said a man who was forcibly disembarked from a pick-up by the protesting drivers.

Earlier, the traffic police during a routine checking fined several pick-up drivers for charging Rs7 instead of Rs5 from passengers on the Mansehra-Ghazikot route.

The angry drivers gathered on Abbottabad road and tried to forcibly stop drivers of other pick-ups for joining their strike. A passenger told reporters that the drivers had been pulling the passengers out of vehicles for several hours, but the police did not come to their rescue.

As a result, the passengers of Ghazikot, Haryala, Datta, Behali and adjoining areas suffered a lot. A pickup driver told reporters that they had enhanced the fares after the government raised the CNG prices. He said that if the government wanted to provide relief to the people it should bring down the CNG prices.

ACCUSED HELD:

Police on Tuesday arrested the co-accused in killing of a man who was allegedly shot dead by his wife on Saturday last. Waqar Ahmad was shot dead in mysterious conditions at his house in Kangali area in Oghi and police had taken his wife, Rabia Bibi, into custody. During interrogation, she confessed to her crime before the magistrate on duty.— Correspondent