Four drivers and one other were arrested by the police for allegedly transporting passengers out of Karachi despite the ban on public transport and inter-city transport services late on Saturday night. A truck with dozens of passengers hidden in the back was stopped by the Artillery Maidan and Civil Lines police in a joint operation near Fawwara Chowk. The police arrested truck driver Muhammad Shah and his accomplice Naseeb Wali, while taking the truck into custody. According to the police, Shah revealed during interrogation that he had been transporting 43 people to Mansehra at exorbitant fares. The passengers, meanwhile, explained that they had been travelling back to their hometowns from Karachi due to the financial crisis created by the lockdown. The police advised them to practice precautionary measures in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus and returned their fare money to them. Meanwhile, the Gadap City police arrested three drivers and seized their vehicles in separate operations at the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway. According to Gadap City SHO Naimat Bhatti, driver Syed Nabi Shah had been illegally transporting passengers to Peshawar in his coach for Rs5,000 per passenger. Bhatti claimed that the same vehicle had been caught earlier in another illegal bid to transport people out of the city during the lockdown. Furthermore, another driver, Mukhtar Ali, was arrested by the Gadap City police for transporting at least a dozen passengers out of the city in a Hiace van. Ali stated that he had charged the passengers a total amount of Rs70,000 for carrying them to Mansehra.—Agencies
