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Militants torch NATO tanker in Pakistan

11 June 2011 23:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Pakistani militants have attacked a NATO supply vehicle transporting fuel destined for US-led forces in Afghanistan and set it on fire in Baluchistan province, APA reports quoting Press TV.

A group of unidentified armed men opened fire on a tanker in Yaro area of Pishin district, located some 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the provincial capital of Quetta, late on Friday as it was traveling from Afghanistan to Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi. The driver was killed in the shootout while his assistant suffered injuries, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The assailants later fled the scene. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

Police cordoned off the area following the incident and launched a search operation to arrest the perpetrators.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants regularly conduct attacks on NATO convoys in Pakistan.

The US military and NATO rely heavily on the Pakistani supply route into the landlocked Afghanistan.

Supplies arrive by sea in Karachi, where security analysts believe most of the Afghan Taliban leadership is now hiding. From there, they must travel in long, exposed convoys, through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan.

Militants in the rugged tribal area have staged violent attacks in recent months, torching hundreds of NATO vehicles and containers destined for US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan.

In response, the Pakistani authorities have deployed large contingents of police and military forces on all major arteries in the area to curb the attacks.

Other routes, largely through Russia and the Central Asian states, have proved too costly, both politically and economically.