Brazen assault: NATO containers ambushed, four injured

Militants escape undetected after two separate attacks.

JAMRUD:

Four men were injured when vehicles carrying Nato supplies were ambushed by gunmen in two separate incidents in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Saturday.

The vehicles were en route to Karachi from Afghanistan when they were attacked, said political administration official Asmatullah Wazir, adding two drivers and two cleaners are among the injured. He said the first incident took place at around 9:15am near Bigyari check post while the second occurred 45 minutes later near Sur Kamar area.

Wazir said unidentified gunmen first shot at the tyres of a Nato supply vehicle near Bigyari check post and then sprayed the vehicle with bullets, injuring driver Khan Bahadur and cleaner Shah Jehan. The attackers managed to escape undetected following the assault.

The political administration official said security was tightened in the surrounding areas soon after, but militants fired a rocket at a vehicle near Sur Kamar, injuring driver Sohail Ahmad and cleaner Junaid Bashir. Khasadar personnel tried to chase the attackers, but the quest was futile.



The injured men were shifted to Jamrud Civil Hospital and later referred to Hayatabad Medical Complex. Khasadar officials subsequently launched a search operation in the area during which six suspects were held under the collective responsibility clause of the FCR. Seven khasadar officials, including two check post commanders, were also suspended by the political administration for negligence.

The attacks come days after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to press the federal government to stop Nato supplies in protest over continued US drone attacks – the latest of which killed Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in North Waziristan Agency on November 1.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2013.