The Currency Dealers Association, Peshawar, has decided to observe strike on Monday against the looting of Rs 135 million from a bullet vehicle of a security agency carrying their cash to Islamabad near Swabi on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway.
Addressing the a press conference here at Peshawar Press Club (PPC), the general secretary of the Currency Dealers Association, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, gave the deadline of three days for arresting of the culprits involved in the bloody dacoity incident, which claimed the lives of three security guards and rendered three others injured.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, May 6 when a security company vehicle, carrying cash of the currency dealers, was attacked by unknown dacoits on the motorway in the jurisdiction of District Swabi. In the incident, the dacoits decamped with Rs 135 million while an amount of Rs 15 million remained in the vehicle, which is now in possession of the police.
Shakeel, who was flanked by leaders of the trading community including a former vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Faiz Rasool Khan, Mohammad Haleem Jan, Ghufran and others, demanded immediate arrest of the culprits involved in the incident and returning of the amount looted of the vehicle, Otherwise, he said, they would be left with no option other than going on strike on Monday.
The trading community of Peshawar, he said, would protest the incident and would block the roads for vehicular traffic. He said that the one-day strike of the currency dealers of Peshawar would be followed by strikes in other cities of the country in all four provinces. He said that the currency dealers had also planned to stage a protest demo in front of the Parliament House, in Islamabad, and warned that on failure of the government in arresting and recovery of the looted amount, the strike call would be extended to the whole country.
Criticising the reputed Motorway Police, he alleged that they only concentrate on collection of heavy fines from the violators on the pretext of traffic laws and avoid intervention at the time of dacoities of robberies on the highway.
He said that due to fire exchange between the security guards of the vehicle and dacoits the motorway remained blocked for all kind of traffic for more than 35 minutes. But, none of the motorway official reached the spot to rescue the vehicle from the attack of the dacoits.
He questioned the cutting of the fence on motorway, saying why it was not in the knowledge of the motorway police. Furthermore, he said, the motorway is the safest road and riding of rocket launchers-equipped vehicles of dacoits is a matter of great concern. The official of the currency dealers association said that the situation has created doubts that the officials of both motorway and local police had also played some role in the incident.