One hurt as Nato tanker blown up

PESHAWAR, April 30: Suspected militants blew up an oil tanker supplying fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan near Karkhano Market here early on Saturday morning. "A transporter also received burn injuries while trying to extinguish the fire," an official of Hayatabad police station told Dawn. He said that the oil tanker was parked along the main Jamrud Road after developed some technical fault when militants blew it up with a magnet bomb at about 4am. He said that another trailer passing near the oil tanker also caught fire. The trailer carrying about 900 bags of sugar to Afghanistan was completely gutted. The fire also engulfed the nearby market and damaged at least 15 cabins and a branch of Khyber Bank. He said that militants also fired at the tanker and then disappeared. "We searched the area soon after the incident but could not arrest the culprits," the official said. A spokesman for Rescue 1122 said that they reached the spot soon after getting information and succeeded in extinguishing fire and saving the nearby markets and shopping centres. Police said that more than 44,000 litres patrol were burnt in the oil tanker. He said that police and locals also helped the rescuers and tried their best to save the shops inside the markets. About 33 tankers have been blown up and four persons killed so far during the current year in the limits of Peshawar. Meanwhile, reacting to killing of a driver at a checkpost in Khyber Agency allegedly by a khasadar, the transporters supplying goods and fuel to Nato forces have threatened to observer wheel jam strike. Sarhad Goods Transport Federation president Haji Ashraf Khan Khalil told Dawn that the driver had been killed by the law enforcer when he did not pay extortion money. "We have called a meeting in Mardan on Sunday to devise future line of action," he said and added that the best solution to get rid of problems was to stop supply to Nato forces. He said that police and Khasadar Force had made lives of transporters miserable as they had set up checkpoints at very short distance and extorted money from the drivers for no fault of theirs. "We set a deadline for acceptance of our demands and in the meantime the drivers will transport goods as per agreements," he said and added that after the deadline no transporter would supply goods to Afghanistan.