Grenade explosion: Six injured in attack on NATO container

Men riding a motorcycle lobbed a hand grenade at a NATO trailer's windscreen.

PESHAWAR:

Six people were injured when a Nato container came under hand grenade attack on Jamrud Road near the Karkhano market Thursday afternoon. 

A Nato supply trailer carrying an armoured car was on its way from Afghanistan when men riding a motorcycle lobbed a hand grenade at its windscreen. The bomb exploded, injuring six people, including a taxi driver and a passerby. The attackers sped away unidentified.

The wounded were taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex where their condition was reported to be stable.

“Dozens of Nato vehicles coming from Afghanistan use this route to go to the port city of Karachi,” said a police official.

He expressed apprehension that attacks on Nato vehicles shall increase as equipment and vehicles are transported from the war-torn Afghanistan.

Recently, four tankers supplying oil for the Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan were cleared to cross the Torkham border Thursday evening. A political administration official, Mairaj Khan, said the oil tankers reached the border amid tight security at around 7pm. “The Khasadar officials, escorting the tankers, shifted them to the clearance house and within an hour all the tankers got clearance to cross the border,” he said, adding that the oil tankers were bound for the Bagram Base in Afghanistan.

The oil supply to the Nato forces in Aghanistan resumed on Wednesday, after a suspension of five months, as four tankers were allowed to cross into Afghanistan. Supply was stopped at this point last March when transporters had a dispute with the contractors over freight charges. Another cause for this was threats from the militant groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.