One driver killed, 40 Nato-oil tankers torched in Quetta, TTP claimed responsibility of attack

One driver killed, 40 Nato-oil tankers torched in Quetta, TTP claimed responsibility of attack
By Mohammad Saleem Mehsud

QUETTA, Oct 06 : Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility of the attack wherein one driver was killed and some 40 Nato-oil tankers were set ablaze by armed men here at Akhtarabad Terminal of Quetta Bypass on Wednesday while Torkham border remained closed on the seventh consecutive day, official sources said.

Talking from undisclosed location spokesman TTP claimed responsibility of the attack on Nato-oil tankers in Quetta and said that attacks were reaction of drone attacks in North Waziristan Agency.

“Up to 40 Nato-oil tankers were parked at Aktharabad Terminal when a group of militants opened indiscriminate fire at the tankers, killing a driver on the spot and setting 40 oil tankers on fire,” sources said.

Law enforcement agencies officials and fire-brigade arrived at the scene and started extinguishing fire to save the remaining tankers. After four and half hours of hectic efforts fire-brigade officials succeeded in controlling the fire.

IG Balochistan Police Malik Mohammad Iqbal told a private TV channel that police officials with its limited resources were not responsible for the security of the tankers stationed in the terminal. He said they were investigating the incident to nab the criminals involved.

Meanwhile Torkham border, main land supply route for Nato forces in Afghanistan remained closed for the seventh consecutive day, after a cross-border Nato helicopter attack that officials blamed for the death of three Pakistani soldiers.

Scores of oil tankers and trucks loaded with supplies for Nato forces are parked at Torkham border, Ring road Terminal Peshawar, Azakheil Camp Nowshera and other camps due to closure of the vital Torkham border crossing. The standing tankers and trucks owners are impatiently waiting for crossing the border as they fear more attacks from the militants.

“Chaman border is open for Nato-oil tankers and trucks and only Torkhum border, the main supply route, was closed a week earlier by Pakistani officials due violation of Nato helicopters,” officials added.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has urged Pakistan to reopen the vital route "as soon as possible".

Since the key route was closed, on Thursday last local Taliban militants have claimed three raids in which nearly 60 trucks were torched, and vowed more attacks.

Three people were killed in one incident when about 20 Nato-oil tankers were set ablaze by attackers armed with Molotov cocktails near Islamabad.

In a similar incident on Friday in the south, heavily armed gunmen set fire to more than two dozen trucks and tankers carrying fuel for the 152,000-strong foreign forces fighting the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.

Two NATO trucks were also torched by unknown assailants in the Qalat district of Baluchistan on Monday.

“The attacks on Nato-oil tankers were to avenge US drone attacks and halt the Nato supply route through Pakistan,” spokesman Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Azam Tariq said while claiming responsibility of dual attacks a few days earlier.

On the other hand, United States has massively increased its drone campaign in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal region on the Afghan border, which it calls the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and is a hub of militants fighting in Afghanistan.

(Published in frontier post)