Thaindian News

Islamabad, Oct 7 (IANS) More than 50 oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in two separate Taliban attacks in Pakistan, a media report said.

Twenty-five tankers were destroyed after militants attacked a terminal Wednesday in the Akhtarabad area of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province.

The tankers caught fire after gunmen started firing following a rocket attack. A driver died of bullet injuries, Dawn newpaper reported.

“I heard two huge explosions after half-an-hour of heavy firing,” Amir Mohammad Kakar, who runs a restaurant nearby, told Dawn.

The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Taliban spokesman told reporters by phone that the group would intensify attacks to avenge the US drone assaults.

Balochistan police chief Malik Iqbal said officials could not provide adequate security to NATO vehicles from Karachi to Chaman border crossing as they had limited resources.

Sources said 45 oil tankers were parked at the terminal when Taliban militants attacked it. The terminal’s staff, including the security men, fled the facility.

Twenty-six more oil tankers caught fire after militants fired at the vehicles parked on the Grand Trunk Road in the Khairabad area of Nowshera district Wednesday. The blaze engulfed a nearby hotel.

Firefighters were called in from Peshawar and Nowshera after the attack in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.