Taliban militants in Pakistan destroyed 12 parked trucks laden with supplies for NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan during a heavy battle with police yesterday, an official said.
Fighters armed with rockets and gasoline bombs besieged the Farhad terminal on the edge of the northwest city Peshawar, police said, the latest in a series of strikes targeting goods bound for foreign forces across the border.
“There were no casualties in the attack, but the fire gutted 12 trucks loaded with NATO supplies,” local police station chief Fazal Wahid said.
“We had to call reinforcements from other police stations as Taliban outnumbered the local force and were heavily armed,” Wahid said.
The bulk of supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan and the fabled Khyber pass through the northwest is the principal land route.
The attack came one day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a packed mosque during prayers in Jamrud, near Peshawar, leaving around 50 dead and scores wounded in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the country.
Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan have often killed scores of Pakistani civilians in attacks. Mosques and funerals have been targeted before, but Friday’s bombing was seen by many as plumbing new depths of evil.
“What kind of holy war is this? Only poor people have been killed,” said Asfandyar Wali, head of the ruling secular party in the northwest.
“This is not about implementing Islamic law, this is not about holy war. This is outright insurgency,” he said.
Tariq Hayat, the top administrator of the Khyber tribal region, said 48 bodies were found in the rubble, and he predicted the death toll would likely rise. More than 100 people were wounded, medical officials said.
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