MULTAN, May 23: A bus carrying 13 passengers has reportedly been hijacked on the Indus Highway in Rajanpur while going from Peshawar to Karachi.

The alleged hijackers took control of the bus near Fazilpur, about 180 kilometres from here. They forced driver Abdul Razzaq, assistant driver Roshan Khan and conductor Hafeezullah to get down and drove away with the vehicle to some unknown place.

According to the police, the bus crew, which reached the area police station by Friday noon, had lodged a report that more than nine armed people had hijacked their bus.

The bus (KPC-2147) had set off for Karachi from Peshawar on Thursday with seven passengers aboard. Before the hijacking, six people boarded the bus from Kohat, four from Bannu bypass and five others, four of them had worn veils, from Dera Ismail Khan.

When the bus reached near Fazilpur late on Thursday night, the burqa-clad put off their veils and appeared men who had held arms. They were also joined by the four men who had boarded the bus from the Bannu bypass.

The armed men took control of the vehicle, blindfold the crew and shifted them in a pick-up, which the driver claimed that he had seen chasing the bus from Bannu. The hijackers later threw out the bus crew near the sugar mills situated alongside the Indus Highway near Rajanpur. It was about 5am on Friday.

All the crew members reportedly belonged to Darra Adamkhel and were alien to the area. First they approached the police authorities in Rajanpur to report their ordeal. From there, they were referred to the Fazilpur police station.

Driver Abdul Razzaq told the police that the hijackers first intended to shot them dead, but later they set them free. He said the four people who boarded the bus from Bannu were speaking Punjabi while the five others were conversing in Pushto. The driver added that the hijackers did not convey any demand to any member of the crew.

When contacted, Rajanpur DPO Chaudhry Muneer, Saddar circle SDPO DSP Chaudhry Liaquat and Fazilpur SHO Mujahid Iqbal were said to be out to find out the hijacked bus.

A police officer, who requested anonymity, said the alleged hijackers might have some monetary dispute with the bus owner. He said most of the vehicles, plying on the Peshawar-Karachi route, were purchased on instalments by the transporters from the investors who usually exercised ‘above the law’ tactics to get back their vehicle whenever the buyer defaulted. However, he could not cite any example of kidnapping the innocent people by the investors. The Rajanpur police seem to be ‘groping in the dark’ so far.