PESHAWAR, Feb 1: The Muttahida Transport Association on Saturday started an indefinite strike to pressure the government to increase the intra-city minimum bus fares from Rs3 to 5.

Commuters travelling from general bus stand to Hayatabad Township and Karkhano, faced a lot of difficulty in reaching their destinations.

Earlier in the day, the transporters had placed hurdles on the main GT Road near the Ring Road, which were removed by the police.

In the absence of passenger buses Datsun and Suzuki pickups had a field day — they overloaded and overcharged all day. The police did nothing to stop them.

Some arrests were also made. These were people who tried to disrupt the smooth flow of traffic on main roads.

There were also reports of clashes between various factions of the transporters associations at the general bus stand.

And there were some strike- breakers as well who continued to run their buses from Hashtnagri to Board stop and Karkhano market, Kohat bus stand to Board and Karkhano market.

Students, specially girls and sick people suffered the most.

And rickshaw and taxis were the most sought-after commodities all day.

By evening, most transport began to operate from Hayatabad township to Saddar and Hashtnagri stop.

Transporters’ leaders, including Yousaf Shah, Jehangir Afridi and others told reporters the strike will continue until their demands were not met. They said that the prices of diesel and spare parts had gone up manifold, so their demand was justified.

They said that it was unfair of the government to allow inter-city transporter to increase or decrease their fares according to the rise and fall of the fuel prices, and not them.

Passengers on the others hand are happy with the government for not allowing a raise in bus fares.

A passenger said that the PTA, DTA and government must fix fares which would apply all year round and will not be subject to fuel price fluctuations.

Meanwhile, a meeting was held in the office of the District Nazim, Azam Afridi to review the situation emanating from the transporters’ strike.