MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 15: A wheel-jam strike by the transporters in Neelum valley region came to an end on Friday after a meeting between the notables of the area, district administration and officials of the Frontier Works Organization (FWO).

The transporters had taken their vehicles off the roads on Wednesday to protest the alleged torture of a driver of bus number AJKE- 7855 on Lesva bypass on Monday last by the four FWO personnel, identified by the victim Murtaza as Ayub, Imtiaz Bhatti, Jamil and Safir Shah.

According to the driver, his only fault was that he had demanded fare from three FWO personnel who boarded his vehicle a day ahead of that incident.

The strike caused inconvenience to the residents of the valley, hundreds of whom were left stranded at the new bus standhere on Wednesday and Thursday.

Home to nearly 150,000 people, Neelum valley runs along the heavily militarized Line of Control and has seen enormous physical and material losses in unrelenting Indian shelling.

The main road winding through the valley is closed to traffic for being in the range of India’s small arms fire. Two alternative routes — Lesva and Karen bypasses — in the upper and lower belts of the valley make the journey lengthy and tiresome and are also vulnerable to India’s artillery fire at several points.

“The FWO personnel have been humiliating us since long. Of late, their excesses had become intolerable so we had no choice but to take our vehicles off the roads as a protest,” a transporter told Dawn prior to the meeting which was held at the office of Muzaffarabad deputy commissioner Mahmood ul Hassan Raja.

Earlier, the FWO personnel had also beaten up the drivers and conductors of buses bearing registration numbers AJK-8672 and AJK-1757, he added.

The incidents were also confirmed to Dawn by a civil administration official on Thursday. The official, who had requested anonymity, was of the view that the situation in the valley warranted immediate action on part of the top army authorities.

The FWO has constructed and is looking after the two bypasses under a contract with the AJK government which has recently allocated Rs30 million more for the repair of the routes.

During the strike, the transporters, drivers and their helpers had also affixed handwritten posters at various points at the new bus stand which demanded from the authorities to take “strict action against those who had tortured the driver.”