KARACHI, May 16: Transporters on Wednesday condemned the setting of vehicles on fire on May 12 and said they were in contact transporters’ organisations of other provinces to finalise a strategy to observe a country-wide wheel-jam strike if they were not paid compensation for the burnt vehicles soon.

“According to initial estimate the transporters suffered a loss of Rs350 million,” said Mohammad Khalid Khan and other leaders of the Karachi Goods Carriers’ Association. They asked the government of Sindh to immediately paym compensation to the owners.

They said loaded public transport vehicles, trucks, taxis, air-conditioned buses, auto-rickshaws and trailers were first taken away at gunpoint and parked across Sharea Faisal and their tyres deflated, and then set ablaze on May 12. “Police and administration officials acted as silent spectators,” they added.

They alleged that the government was removing the burnt vehicles’ wreckage from the main roads so that the owners could not lodge reports with police about the losses.

Leaders of the Karachi Transport Ittehad have also announced holding of a meeting of all transport organisations to decide the future line of action.

KTIC President Syed Irshad Hussain Shah Bukhari and General Secretary Syed Mehmood Afridi said the transporters were grieved over the loss of vehicles worth millions of rupees and felt agitated over the cold response of government officials on compensating them.

They said the transporters’ role in the national economy was like that of a spinal cord but the Sindh government was not paying heed to solving their problems.

They asked the Sindh governor to announce immediate payment of compensation to the owners and remove the prevailing unrest among them.

Another meeting of the Karachi Bus Owners Association was held with Tariq Chaudhry in the chair.

The participants of the meeting accused the heads of various sectors and units of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement of taking away public vehicles on May 11 and said that transport operators were manhandled and not paid for the vehicles used in the rallies.