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Grieving relatives target innocent PMVs and passengers
By PETER KORUGL
MANY PMV buses were smashed and their passengers injured in separate
attacks on the Highlands Highway between Goroka and Simbu following the
deaths of two men in separate hit and run accidents last weekend.
Relatives of the deceased rained missiles down on the buses, hitting
passengers travelling between Kundiawa and Goroka last Saturday and
yesterday in separate incidences following the deaths.
The PMV buses also sustained hundreds of kina in damages as the stones,
sticks and other missiles thrown by the angry relatives broke window
glasses and damaged other parts of the buses.
In the first accident last Saturday morning at 6-Mile outside Goroka, a
Sepik man, married to a local woman there, was allegedly knocked down by
a PMV bus travelling up from Lae.
Eye witnesses told The National a few hours later that the in-laws of
deceased set up a road block and attacked all PMV buses on the road that
morning.
They took one PMV bus and are holding it, one eye witness said, to
induce the owners to name the bus actually involved in the hit and run
accident.
Yesterday, another man, who was apparently drunk, was hit near Asaro
government station by another PMV bus bound for Mt Hagen.
Relatives of the deceased set up a roadblock and tried to get hold of
any PMV bus. As a result, all PMV buses were forced to wait at Mando and
in Kabiufa with their passengers.
Asaro police escorted the Mt Hagen bounded buses up to Mando and then
tried to escort those bound for Goroka and Lae through the road block.
This reporter, who was in one of the buses, saw that the four policemen
— two in a police vehicle marked H7 and another two in a white Toyota
Hilux, were under the influence of alcohol.
This reporter saw the policemen drinking beer at a bottle shop and
demanded the PMV operators and passengers to contribute K100 to obtain
fuel in order for them to provide the escort.
The money was collected and given to one of the policeman who went and
brought a container of fuel at a roadside outlet.
When the police vehicle was refueled and ready, one of the policeman
collected K10 from each bus.
“Givim K10, em i no bikpela moni na bai mipela provaidim eskot,” the
policeman appealed to the passengers as they collected the fees.
Eventually, the policeman managed to obtain K260 from the 26 coaster
buses filled with passengers.
At Asaro, the site of the roadblock, the first four buses managed to
drive away, but the other 22 buses came under heavy attack and the
drunkard policemen could not do anything but watch helplessly.
Reports that reached Goroka say that all the buses sustained damages and
many of the passengers were injured in the attack.
At Faniufa, another group of young men, believed to be relatives of the
Asaro man, attacked the four PMV buses that escaped the roadblock at
Asaro. It is not known if anyone was injured in that attack.
The mayhem on the Highlands Highway has affected many students who were
returning to school after the term holidays.
Also affected were many workers who were either returning to the
Highlands or Lae and Madang after spending the weekend with their
families.
 
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