QUETTA, July 15: Two oil tankers carrying jet fuel for the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in the border town of Chaman after a fire engulfed them on Thursday. A hotel was also partially damaged.
"Nobody was killed or injured in the incident," a senior official of the Chaman administration told this correspondent. The oil takers, coming from Mehmood Kot, were parked at Kargil Shahidan hotel on the outskirts of Chaman, and were soon to leave for Kandahar later in the day.
However, one tanker suddenly caught fire at around 1.30am when drivers of both the tankers were asleep. As flames ripped through the vehicle's body, a huge explosion occurred. The tanker was filled with several thousand litres of JP-1. The blaze spread to engulf another tanker and the hotel building.
The local administration officials rushed to the spot along with fire fighters to tackle the fire. Their efforts went in vain as the blaze had already consumed the tankers.
They, however, managed to save nearby petrol pump and hotel building from destruction after several hours' of effort. "The first oil tanker caught fire after a powerful explosion," said tanker driver Mir Mohammad, adding that the ear-splitting sound aroused him out of slumber.
The local administration has ruled out the possibility of a saboteur being behind the incident, and called it an accident. "It is not a subversive act," a senior Chaman administration official said.
He, however, said that a probe had been ordered. Meanwhile, the Taliban have accepted the responsibility of "blowing up the oil tankers". "The tankers carrying JP-1 for US forces were destroyed by the Taliban," Mullah Mawan, a commander of the ousted militia, told reporters in Chaman through a Satellite phone from an unknown place.
He claimed that they had destroyed the oil tankers to disrupt supplies to the US-led forces in Afghanistan. We will conduct more such attacks in the future on tankers carrying fuel and other supplies for the US forces," Mullah Mawan told reporters.
He said that the Taliban had warned Pakistani drivers against carrying supplies for the US forces. This was the second incident in a space of one and a half month in which oil tankers carrying fuel for the US forces had caught fire.
