PESHAWAR, Jan 2: A violent protest by rickshaw drivers against a traffic plan that restricts their movement in the city turned the Grand Trunk Road into a battlefield as they came in clash with the police here on Monday.

The stick-wielding drivers damaged public and private properties, beat up policemen and snatched ticket books from traffic sergeants.

All this happened during their wheel-jam strike against the traffic plan that, in a move to reduce vehicular pressure on main arteries, asked unregistered rickshaws plying in the city to get registered with the police.

Policemen and rickshaw drivers were seen beating each other on the main road, forcing passengers and public transport vehicles to stay away from G.T. Road for many hours.

The protesting drivers broke signboards, police pickets, road grills and blocked the road at different laces by placing pushcarts and burning tyres. Police also fired teargas shells on the protesters and charged them with baton.

A police officer said that FIR was registered against the leaders of rickshaw drivers at Hashtnagri police station. One of them had been arrested and the rest would be arrested soon, he added.

He claimed that influential political personalities were behind the rickshaw owners as they were extorting money from them.

Traffic SSP Najeebur Rehman told Dawn that police had launched a drive against illegal vehicles and a delegation of rickshaw drivers assured him to discuss the issue with him on Monday but instead of visiting his office they went on strike.

“The drivers beat up two of our policemen, Janas Khan and Iftikhar, and snatched ticket books from traffic sergeants,” he said.

He said that most of the drivers were poor but they were bound to abide by the traffic rules otherwise citizens would be at the mercy of drivers. He added that it was impossible to give them a free hand.

Mr Rehman said that the campaign was launched two months ago and about 1,000 illegal rickshaws were still in the custody of police. “Only 10,000 rickshaws in Peshawar have valid road permits, while about 40,000 to 50,000 are plying on the city roads without any legal documents,” he added.

He said that they were not banning rickshaw drivers from plying their vehicles on the roads but they wanted to streamline traffic. “For this reason we want to introduce colour system according to which vehicles will be given red and white colours and would be allowed to come on roads in two shifts on rotation basis and the shifts will be changed each month,” he said.

However, Rickshaw Driers Union general secretary Murad Khan said that they were not ready to accept the shifts and colours system.The drivers, he said, held negotiation with police officials but it proved fruitless as police were not ready to allow the unregistered vehicles on roads. “It is duty of government to issue permits to the transporters,” he added.

Mr Khan said that the strike would continue till acceptance of their demands. He said that the plan of two shifts would lead to deprive them of earning bread for their families. He said that most of the drivers had to work day and night to meet their expenditures and the new traffic plan did not suit them.