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Pakistan to soon reopen NATO supply route: official
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) Jan 1, 2009 Pakistan will reopen a key route for NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan in the next two days, an official said Thursday as troops pursued militants in the lawless northwest tribal zone. Security forces backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy artillery launched the operation on Tuesday to flush militants out of the area near Jamrud, the gateway to the famed Khyber Pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan. The military offensive forced the closure of the highway from the city of Peshawar to the Afghan border town of Torkham after a series of attacks on truck depots in and around Peshawar that saw hundreds of NATO vehicles torched. "The road will be open in a day or two for all types of traffic, including NATO vehicles," the administrator of the Khyber tribal area, Tariq Hayat, told reporters in Peshawar. "We have achieved 80 percent of our objective," he added, saying a total of 159 people had been arrested or turned themselves in since Tuesday, including 116 Afghans who were illegal migrants or involved with suspected extremists. More than 30 suspected militant hideouts had been destroyed, he said. "The detained Afghans will be interrogated and those proven innocent will be deported, while those found guilty will be punished," he said. Among the Pakistanis arrested were tribal elders accused of harbouring militants or organising kidnappings for ransom in the rugged tribal badlands, where extremists holed up after the Taliban were ousted in Kabul in 2001. Some of the suspects were believed to have carried out some of the attacks on NATO vehicles and fuel tankers, Hayat said. The bulk of the supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is shipped to Pakistan's largest port, Karachi, in the south. From there, the containers of food, fuel, vehicles and munitions are taken by truck to depots outside Peshawar before being transported to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. Hayat said security in Peshawar had improved significantly since the start of the military operation on Tuesday. The total curfew in Jamrud would be lifted for 4.5 hours on Friday to allow residents to shop for food and other essentials, Hayat said, but carrying weapons would be strictly prohibited. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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