Striking truck drivers on Monday marched to the parliament building in central Cairo and held protests. They claim police officers dressed in civilian clothes intimidated them into ending their strike.
Meanwhile, parliamentarians submitted a number of interpellations about the way the government is handling the truckers’ strike, which entered its 11th day on Monday.
Truck owner Mohamed Mahmoud, who is not taking part in the strike, said his truck was fired at by strikers on Sunday while it transported cement cargo on the Suez road.
Other assaults were reported in different Nile Delta cities, where strikers tried to damage trucks not participating in the strike.
In Tanta, 200 drivers demonstrated before the central police station, demanding the release of their colleagues who were arrested on charges of damaging private property.
Meanwhile, an official source at the General Authority for Industrial Development asserted that only 13 workshops are equipped to undertake safety upgrades that the government has stipulated for trailers. They have a combined capacity to upgrade 14,000 trailers a year.
In 2009, the government ordered that over 70,000 trailers are to be upgraded with safety measures by the end of 2012.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
