Pakistan temporarily halts Nato supply over security reasons
Report source : http://www.thenewstribe.com
Peshawar: Pakistan on Thursday
temporarily stopped Nato supply trucks crossing its northwestern border
into Afghanistan over security concerns due to fears of attacks,
officials said.
The development came after gunmen on
Tuesday attacked a convoy of Nato supply trucks, killing a driver, in
the town of Jamrud near the main northwestern city of Peshawar, in the
first such attack since Pakistan lifted a seven-month blockade of the
border.
“Movement of Nato vehicles has been
temporarily suspended since Wednesday evening to beef up security,” a
paramilitary official told AFP.
“We have launched a search operation in the hills surrounding Jamrud,” the official added.
Local administration official Bakhtiar Khan confirmed Thursday the supply route had been suspended due to “security reasons”.
“Intelligence officials have informed
the authority that attacks may occur on Nato vehicles this week and in
the light of this a security plan is being chalked out,” Khan told AFP.
He said the Nato route would “resume
very soon”, but that until then trucks carrying supplies for the
130,000-strong US-led mission in Afghanistan had been told not to
approach the border.
“We have been told by authorities to
wait here as they are building up security after the firing incident,”
Amanullah Khan, a Nato truck driver, told AFP in Peshawar.
So far, the closure has only affected the Torkham crossing.
At the southwestern crossing of Chaman,
some 17 trucks were awaiting clearance to enter Afghanistan and 20 other
trucks were parked in Quetta, clearing agent Ashraf Khan told AFP.
Islamabad closed its land routes to Nato
convoys after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November
26, but reopened them after Washington said sorry for the deaths
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