Staff Reporter :A traffic sergeant severely beat a truck driver who refused to pay toll.The incident took place in the City Gate area under Akbar Shah Police Station in Chittagong on Saturday morning. The victim, identified as Akbar Ali has been admitted to a local hospital in a critical condition. Soon after the news spreaded, some local truck drivers and transport workers blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway for an hour.The accused traffic sergeant Nur-e-Alam has been suspended on charge of assaulting the truck driver, police said. Quoting the witnesses and driver, Mahmuda Begum, Assistant Commissioner (traffic west zone) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said that Nur-e-Alam clobbered Akbar Ali centering refusal to pay toll at about 11:00am. “Nur-e-Alam demanded Tk 400 from Akbar Ali as part of the toll. Akbar Ali gave him Tk 300 and wanted to leave the place. But the sergeant walloped the driver and injured him seriously for not paying Tk 400/-,” the police official said. She said that the transport workers blocked the highway from 11:30am to 12:30pm protesting the assault on the truck driver. They alleged that the sergeant hit several parts of the drivers body with a stick leaving him injured, the police official said. Akbar was coming to Chittagong driving a rice laden truck from Dinajpur. On information, police rushed to the spot and urged the transport leaders and drivers to withdraw the barricade. They withdrew the barricade when police assured them of proper action against the sergeant.
