HYDERABAD, Jan 2: Truck owners under the banner of the Mazda Loading Truck Owners Association held a demonstration outside the press club on Wednesday against the alleged high-handedness of the Cantonment Board contractor, Karim Khan Niazi, and his hoodlums.

Talking to newsmen they said that Niazi and his hoodlums were collecting parking tax by force from the truck owners whose trucks were usually parked on one side of the National Highway.

They said that if anyone refused to pay the illegal tax he was removed by force.

They said that the owners of the Shandar Coach had monopolized the route about which an application had already been submitted to the DIG, Police.

They said that one of their owners, Sain Bux, was arrested on Jan 1 and had been locked up at the cantonment police station although the area was in the jurisdiction of the Baldia police station.

They claimed that the DIG, Hyderabad, had received a fax message on Aug 23, 2001, from the federal interior minister to resolve their problem and an inquiry had also been conducted regarding it but the findings of the inquiry were not being implemented.

They appealed to the DIG to order the release of Sain Bux and personally visit the site to resolve the problem.