Oil supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan resume

KABUL: (MEP) – Peshawar–Oil Supplies to NATO forces inside Afghanistan en-route Pak-Afghan border at Torkham were resumed Wednesday after a pause of more than three months though amid tight security arrangements through a private security firm, Pakistani news reported.

“Overland oil supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan resumed through Pakistan on Wednesday with stepped up security after a four-month hiatus due to attacks” a senior official said. Pakistani contractors had stopped driving oil supplies from Karachi to the Torkham crossing it’s the Afghan border in June due to frequent attacks on their vehicles.

“We are going to resume these supplies from today after hiring the services of a private firm, which will provide security to our convoys from Karachi to Torkham”.

A local contractor Azad Khan Afridi told newsmen.

He said contractors suspended supplies after the government refused to provide them with extra security. Four oil tankers had now reached the border town and were undergoing security clearance, Afridi said.

The Frontier Corps troops escorted the tankers to the border. A local administration official, Meraj Khan, and a local intelligence official also confirmed resumption of supplies. Pakistan is a key transit route for the NATO mission in landlocked Afghanistan. From November 2011 to July 2012, Pakistan had shut its Afghan border to all overland NATO traffic after US air raids killed 24 Pakistani troops.