Peshawar:For the third time in a week, Pakistani Taliban torched trucks and containers full of supplies meant for Western forces in Afghanistan, in a raid on the outskirts of Peshawar, officials and witnesses said. Having tried to set ablaze dozens of trucks in the late hours of Thursday (December 11) without much success, the militants are said to have struck again in the early hours of Friday (December 12), by hurling petrol bombs on one of the terminals where trucks and containers with supplies for NATO forces were parked.
According to police officials six vehicles, including two US military trucks and four containers, were burnt to ashes.
Local television channels, quoting officials from the terminal, put the number at 12. No loss of life was reported.
The terminals are spread over an area of some 13 kilometers, and security officials say they are facing great problems in tackling these attacks.
The route from Peshawar through the Khyber Pass to the border town of Torkham is the most important supply line for U.S. and NATO forces fighting a Taliban insurgency in landlocked Afghanistan.
A spate of attacks has raised concerns both about the security Pakistan provides to the truck convoys and the spread of militancy to the Khyber tribal region and the gates of Peshawar, the most important city in the northwest.
Two weeks back militants had destroyed 22 trucks carrying food supplies.
While most supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan are trucked via Pakistan through Khyber, the other main land route runs from the southwestern city of Quetta through the border town of Chaman to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
The growing violence has raised concern about the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan, as its eight-month-old civilian government is also grappling with an economic crisis.
Pakistan's support is seen as vital to the West's efforts to defeat al-Qaeda globally and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and apart from the deteriorating security situation in the northwest, the government is trying to handle tension with India.
All of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have been infected with militancy, as have some neighbouring so-called "settled areas".
People in Jamrud, the main commercial hub in the Khyber Pass, say militants move freely in the area.
Pakistani security forces launched an operation in June to push back militants from the Khyber region, and a senior police official has said the government planned to launch another operation soon.
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