PAKISTAN: Militants torch supplies for Afghan forces

Record ID: 352451

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Militants torch supplies for Afghan forces
  • Date: 13th April 2009
  • Summary: PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (APRIL 12, 2009) (REUTERS) SIGNBOARD OF CONTAINER TERMINAL TWO BURNT TRUCKS A YOUNG MAN SIFTING THROUGH DEBRIS A MAN HANDING DOWN GOODS RETRIEVED FROM BURNT TRUCK TO ANOTHER MAN VARIOUS OF MORE BURNT CONTAINERS PEOPLE LOOKING AT BURNT VEHICLES (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) TERMINAL WATCHMAN, KHALILUR REHMAN, SAYING: "There were around a hundred men. They bu
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NKUQZWTUV5OCRIHX514Q0LF2
  • Story Text: Taliban militants set fire on Sunday (April 12) 10 container trucks carrying supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan in a pre-dawn attack near the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.
    Islamist militants stepped up attacks on supplies trucked through Pakistan into land-locked Afghanistan last year, exposing the vulnerability of a vital transport link for U.S. and other foreign troops battling the Taliban.
    The attacks have also highlighted the Pakistani government's loss of control to the Taliban over an ever-growing part of the northwest.
    The attackers on Sunday drove up unopposed to two transport depots on the outskirts of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, near the Afghan border.

    "There were around a hundred men. They burnt 9/10 trucks of ours and 2 or 3 in the next terminal. They burnt at least 12 to 15 vehicles in all," a watchman of the terminal told Reuters Television.
    Local police said the militants first disarmed the terminal guards and then threw petrol bombs.
    As the militants were withdrawing, police turned up and there was a brief exchange of fire in which two truck drivers were wounded, they said.
    Local police said the trucks were taking cement to Afghanistan.
    The route from Peshawar up to the Afghan border through the Khyber Pass is the most important of two routes through Pakistan.
    Because of the increase in militant attacks, the United States has been trying to find new supply routes.
    The United States said in March it expected soon to finalise an agreement with Tajikistan that would allow the transit of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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