RAHIM YAR KHAN: The local chapters of the Punjab Goods Transport Association (PGTA) and traders staged a sit-in at Bahadurpur Chowk on the National Highway against the National Highway and Motorway Police (NH&MP), patrolling police and traffic police on Monday.

The protest was led by PGTA district president Suleman Khan and secretary general Yousuf Charan, and Anjuman-i-Tajran district head Azman Asghar and its chairman Haji Islam Noorani.

In his speech on the occasion, Suleman Khan said goods transport vehicle owners were facing lawlessness on the Karachi-Peshawer National Highway (N-5).

He said the drivers of trucks, trailers and tankers had been complaining about theft of the goods loaded on their vehicles by criminals, especially in Sindh.

Besides, many drivers were also kidnapped on the highway by these criminals, who later murdered some of them, he added.

NH&MP denies truckers’ claim

Suleman alleged that the officials concerned of the NH&MP and patrolling police in Sindh as well as Punjab were turning a deaf ear to their complaints regarding goods theft, kidnappings and murders.

He further said that in Pattoki and Dunyapur, the private contractors of the National Highway Authority (NHA) running weigh bridges on motorway were blackmailing the drivers of their vehicles on the pretext of overloading and slap heavy fines up to Rs30,000 on them “unjustly and illegally”.

He said the district chapters of both associations have staged a joint protest demanding resolution of these issues.

He said the sit-in and protest would continue till acceptance of their demands, warning of a wheel-jam strike if the situation persisted. NH&MP spokesperson Muhammad Usman told Dawn that there was no protest sit-in noted or reported by their patrolling vehicles on the national highway on Monday.

He said an operation was in progress regarding the axel control regime and all beat administrations, including SPs and DSPs, were conducting meetings with transporters and clear directions had been passed on to them. “All actions are being taken against transporters under the law.”

To counter the crime or theft of goods from moving vehicles, he said the NH&MP with the coordination of local police had started night patrolling. He said no incident of kidnapping had been reported yet.

“The NH&MP is trying to ensure the safety and security of highway users. Overloaded vehicles are damaging the roads which resulted in increase in accidents” Usman said.

Meanwhile, dacoits looted a trader of fruit and vegetable market of Zahirpir town on the National Highway, some 65kms from here on Monday.

Police say the trader, Ghulam Nabi, was returning home from his commission shop at the local fruit and vegetable market when he was intercepted by two armed motorcyclists on a busy road at Malik Town.

The dacoits allegedly snatched Rs1 million from the trader at gunpoint and fled away.

Later, a large number of traders of fruit and vegetable market gathered outside the Zahirpir police station and staged a demo against the lawlessness in the area. The local traders’ association president Khalid Langah demanded the police should immediately arrest the dacoits.

The police say they have stared collecting CCTV cameras footage from the area to identify the dacoits and blocked all the entry and exit points of the town by setting up pickets.

There was no disruption of traffic on the National Highway because of the protest.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2024