Staff Reporter
Karachi
Transporters in the early hours of Thursday ended their hours-long protest sit-in on main Superhighway (now called M-9 Motorway) near Kathore over the killing of their three colleagues during a clash with toll tax collectors and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) guards a day earlier.
On Wednesday afternoon, three persons were shot dead and two others were injured during a protest by transporters on the Link Road near Superhighway when they clashed with FWO personnel who allegedly resorted to firing. The drivers were demonstrating against the FWO’s decision to implement a recent judgement of the Supreme Court with regard to the ‘axle load regime’ when the violence occurred.
The blockade was ended and traffic resumed on the busy highway after successful talks on Thursday between the protesters and a government team led by Sindh Minister for Labour and Human Resources Ghulam Murtaza Baloch and comprising MNA Agha Rafiullah, DIG East Amir Farooqi and others, according to officials.
DIG Farooqi told media that “transport association members, the area’s elected representatives and senior officers of FWO played a positive role in ending the road blockade.”
“Assurances were given by FWO that a thorough probe will be conducted into the whole incident and those responsible will be dealt as per law,” the senior officer added.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered as per a request of the affected drivers, the DIG said, vowing that the “investigation will be done on merit”.
