This roadblock at the corner of Coke Avenue and Vernon's Drive was one of many mounted in several communities in Montego Bay yesterday. The blockage was eventually cleared by the police, who maintained a presence in the area.

GLADSTONE Allen, a 60 year-old bus driver who refused to be press-ganged into joining yesterday's strike by taxi operators, was stabbed to death in Westmoreland in one of the several cases of intimidation connected with yesterday's protests.

Last night, Morris Atkins, 40, of Ramble, Hanover, was in custody, charged with Allen's murder, and the police said that there was the possibility of other persons being charged as their investigations progress.

At the same time, the police said that about 20 other persons were arrested across the island for littering and traffic-related offences with the strike, which had greatest impact in western Jamaica.

Taxi operators hold placards as they demonstrate in Papine, St Andrew.

Montego Bay, the island's major tourist resort, was hardest hit with commuters in several areas finding it difficult to get transport, causing some schools to close.

Elsewhere, support for the strike was largely patchy -- although in some areas roads were blocked and fires burned in streets -- allowing the information minister, Burchell Whiteman, to declare the action "generally limited in impact".

The strike was ostensibly organised by taxi drivers to air grouses ranging from congestion in Montego Bay and higher petrol prices to increased vehicle licence fees and a steep hike in the fines for traffic offences.

The most frequently heard complaint was the increase in the fine for the illegal operation of a taxi from $2,000 to $20,000.

"I think it is ridiculous," said one woman in Flankers, Montego Bay. "To raise something from $2,000 to $20,000 is unimaginable."

But both the Government and the ruling People's National Party (PNP) insisted that the strike was politically-inspired and organised by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in an attempt to embarrass the administration and undermine the economy.

The PNP general-secretary, Maxine Henry-Wilson, in a statement last night recalled that the JLP's tourism spokesman, Ed Bartlett, had recently predicted a poor winter tourist season, which did not materialise. The upshot, she suggested, was disruption.

"Now that his prophecies have been proven wrong, it is clear that he is party to this plan to prevent visitors from moving freely and enjoying the pleasures of their vacation," Henry-Wilson said.

But last night, Bartlett denied any involvement in the strike and said that he had been off the island since December 26 and had only returned yesterday.

"I am flabbergasted by the release of a statement made by the minister of education, accusing both myself and the JLP of aiding and abetting a demonstration by taxi drivers to fulfil my prediction of a bad winter tourist season," Bartlett said.

Tourism interests had warned that any disruption or violence, coming at the start of the booking season for the winter tourist trade, would be harmful to Jamaica at the time when visitor arrivals appeared to be on the upswing.

The protests, however, appeared to have largely spared the delicate tourism sector and there were few reports of visitors being caught in the melee.

But in several areas, taxi drivers and supporters used boulders and other debris to block roads and were, especially in the early part of the day, successful in impeding traffic in Montego Bay communities such as Flankers and Glendevon.

In some areas, strikers openly threatened taxi drivers who continued to operate. In the case of Allen, who is from Belmont, Westmoreland, he died, apparently for insisting that it was his right not to strike.

According to the police, Allen, who operates a Toyota Hiace bus between Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland and Montego Bay, was heading for the north coast city just before 1:00 pm when striking drivers tried to stop him on the Whitfield main road.

"About seven bus operators who had earlier withdrawn their services ... allegedly pursued him from Whithorn, drove in front of him, blocked his path and attempted to commandeer his vehicle," said Westmoreland police spokesman, Sergeant Douglas.

"The operators forced the passengers out of the vehicle and during an attempt to get the keys to the vehicle from Allen, who resisted, he was stabbed in the left breast by a man later identified as Atkins."

Allen's bus had been chased for about five miles.

Late yesterday, Dr Horace Chang, the JLP MP for North West St James, condemned the incident and called for Allen's killers to be brought to justice. Chang had, at the weekend, claimed not to have been involved in organising the protest, but conceded that taxi drivers had called on this constituency leaders for organisational support.

He later appeared to have embraced the protest, but said that he would attempt to "redirect it" away from disruption and violence. The kind of behaviour that led to Allen's death was not on the agenda of the people with whom he was engaged, Chang suggested.

"That was not a part of the agenda of anybody in Montego Bay," he said. "There were several taxi men operating on their own (in Montego Bay) and people were upset but nobody troubled them. I think it's a most unfortunate incident and those who breach the law in that manner should be caught and punished."

But the PNP made capital of the killing.

"This is an unforgivable development which must be laid squarely at the feet of those who planned the protest action," Henry-Wilson said in a statement.

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