SHO replaced as truck drivers protest against urea theft

Police promises to catch the suspects and recover fertilizer.

HYDERABAD: The road from Karachi to Hyderabad was blocked for nearly seven hours on Thursday by truck drivers protesting against the increasing number of robberies on the Super Highway.

The protest was organised in retaliation to a robbery that took place early in the morning. Around 200 bags of urea and Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser were stolen from two trucks (P-4308 and P-4429). Approximately one hundred trucks were lined along the highway near Lunikot, 25 kilometres from Hyderabad.

The drivers claim that the robbers stoles the fertiliser as the trucks were in motion. According to Haider Bux Junejo, a truck driver, the men told him not to stop. The driver of another truck, Pir Baksh Brohi, said that one of the robbers had a Kalashnikov and took the bags of fertiliser from him by force.

A police officer at the Thatta SSP’s office complained about the frequent transfers and postings at the Lunikot police station. He told The Express Tribune that during the protest, the SHO was replaced. SHO Aftab Jagirani was replaced with SHO Jabbar Bhutto. When contacted, Bhutto said that he had just taken charge and would only be able to comment after he settled in.

Junejo’s truck had the urea bags while Brohi’s truck was carrying the DAP fertiliser which cost three times as much as urea. A bag of urea can cost up to Rs1,600.

For over six hours, the police, Rangers and Motorway Police were engaged in negotiations with the drivers. The negotiations came to an end when the police assured them that they would find the suspects.

The truck drivers did not register a FIR. They said that they did not want to have bad blood with the suspects as it would interfere with their work. According to Junejo, these robberies have become quite frequent in Lunikot.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2012.