PESHAWAR, March 26: Hundreds of truckers blocked the Grand Trunk Road between Peshawar and Islamabad for several hours on Saturday, smashing windscreen of government and private vehicles on the main highway. Angry truck drivers who have started a protest movement against the hike in prices of petroleum products since Friday blocked the highway at six junctions and staged sit-ins at various points, eyewitnesses said. The protesters forced a large number of passengers to disembark from the vehicles on the G.T. Road near Nowshera and Pabbi, which led to clashes between the police and the truckers. Police resorted to baton charge to open vehicular traffic on the highway, which remained closed for more than five hours for all sorts of traffic. The mob pelted dozens of vehicles with stones and smashed windscreens of three police vehicles and also partially damaged an ambulance near Nowshera. Hide-and-seek between transporters and police continued for more than two hours.

Sources said that the police department had failed to make prior deployment of force at various junctions, which caused severe problems for the general public.

Provincial ministers and senior officials from the federal interior ministry rushed to the trouble spots to cope with the situation and woo the truckers into opening the route for traffic.

Sources said that the provincial ministers held talks with leaders of the association and the drivers, on being held assurances, ended their strike at about 1.30pm.

On the appeal of All Pakistan Goods Transport Truck Owners, a wheel-jam strike was also observed in other parts of the NWFP, including Malakand region and Swabi.

Muqaddam Khan adds from Swabi: The transporters? strike here entered a second day on Saturday and they have vowed to continue on Sunday ?against the unprecedented hike in petroleum products?.

At each entry-point, the office-bearers of transporters stood to ensure compliance with the strike call. The roads in the district wore a deserted look where children played cricket.

The transporters? office-bearers remained in a Datsun pick-up, fitted with a loudspeaker, in Kernal Sher Chowk, to give a kind of warning to fellow transporters to stay off roads.

It had been declared that no transport would be allowed to ply on any route of the district.

MINGORA: The transporters of Malakand division continued their strike on second consecutive day on Saturday.

They burnt tyres on main roads near the general bus-stand and remained present the whole day to ensure success of the strike. Many employees of government and private offices could not reach their workplaces due to the strike.