Transporters block MA Jinnah road to protest Nawabshah bus attack

Threaten to block highway if demands of Rs1 million compensation for dead driver, arrest of culprits not fulfilled.

KARACHI: After a driver of an inter-city bus was killed in the attack in Qazi Ahmed on Friday, transporters on Saturday temporarily blocked off the MA Jinnah road in Karachi to alert the concerned authorities of their demands of security, compensation and quick action against the culprits behind Friday’s deadly bus attack.

Seven people were killed and three were injured when unknown assailants boarded and subsequently opened fire inside a bus on Friday near Nawabshah. The bus, Al Sanober Attock Coach, was on its way from Karachi to Swabi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The bus driver was also killed in the attack.

On Saturday, transporters gathered at the Karachi Transport Ittehad’s office to discuss the situation. They decided that unless the government arrests the culprits for the attack by noon on Monday, they would proceed to block the highway. They also demanded Rs1 million as compensation for the deceased driver and for the second driver of the bus to be immediately released.

As a token protest, transporters parked their vehicles on the north and south tracks of MA Jinnah road near Taj Complex, where it intersects Preedy street. Traffic to and from the city remained suuck in a massive traffic jam for the 30 odd minutes that the transporters protested.

Earlier, in a meeting of the various associations with represent public and private transporters, it was decided that they will

The meeting was attended by chairman Karachi Transport Ittehad Irshad Bukhari, Malik Riaz Awan of the Sindh Air Conditioned Bus Owners Association, Noor Khan Niazi of the Karachi Goods Carriers Association and the All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association.