By ELIAS LARI and CEDRIC LAGA
PASSENGERS travelling in a PMV to Kundiawa, Simbu province, last week were lucky to escape injuries when they were fired upon by a policeman in the town.
The passengers were also forced to pay the policeman and his colleagues K200 before they were allowed to continue their journey to Mt Hagen.
Kelly Kot, owner of the 25-seater PMV bus with registration P0511C, told The National in Mt Hagen that his bus was traveling from Lae to Mt Hagen with 40 bags of betelnut and nine passengers on board when the incident happened.
Kot said the bus was travelling to Kundiawa around 3am last Thursday morning when a lone policeman standing on the side of the highway with a gun fired at the bus.
When the passengers heard the gunshot, they dived under their seats.
A bullet penetrated the back windscreen of the bus but the passengers were protected by the betelnut bags stacked up at the back of the bus.
Kot said the policeman then called for reinforcement and ordered the bus to the police station.
At the police station, the policemen allegedly hit the driver with the gun butt and punched the crew and ordered them to pay K500 before they could leave.
He said the driver and his crew refused to pay K500 but the passengers contributed K200 and gave it to the policemen, who then allowed them to continue their journey.
Mr Kot said the policemen accused his driver and crew of failing to stop at a police roadblock.
But according to the driver, there was no roadblock and there were no blue light or traffic cone on the road to signify a roadblock that would direct him to stop.
He claimed that his driver sustained severe head injuries and was now on medication while his crew was nursing bruises to his body.
Mr Kot said the identities of the five policemen involved in the incident were known to them and they had reported the matter to the Kundiawa police.
Provincial police commander Supt Joseph Tondop said last Friday from Kundiawa that no formal complaint was lodged by the owner of the bus.
Supt Tondop however, promised to investigate.