August 11, 2008	Monday	Sha’aban 8, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 10: Militants have warned petrol pump-owners in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to desist from transportation of fuel to Afghanistan and sell only the oil supplied by the government-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO), sources said.

After threats, several outlets have stopped sale of oil supplied by multinational oil companies, while the rest were weighing options either to close their pumps or to contact the PSO for further supply, or to switch over to other businesses, the sources added.

“We have been receiving threats from the Taliban to stop selling oil supplied by the multinational oil companies and sell only the supplies of the Pakistan State Oil,” said the manager of a petrol pump, selling oil of a multinational oil firm in the Khyber Agency.

A letter received by several petrol pumps in various Fata agencies had warned them to close down petrol pumps owned by multinational companies. The letter said that in case of failure on the part of the pump-owners to comply with the warning, their pumps would be set ablaze and they would be penalised. Except the PSO, the oil companies were owned either by Israel or the United States and “they use the profit against the Muslims”.

There are about 50 pumps in the Fata that are owned by the PSO, while a similar number of pumps were owned by multinational oil firms, said a leader of the Petroleum Dealers Association. Not only letters, but many of the petrol pump owners elsewhere in the Fata, had been advised not to indulge in businesses that are aiming to give profit to the enemies, he added.

A month ago, the brother of a multinational petrol pump-owner was kidnapped by militants in Khyber Agency. According to sources, the militants had demanded Rs10 million ransom for his release. “The pump-owner approached Mangal Bagh, chief of Lashkar Islam, who secured his brother’s release without paying ransom. However, he was asked by the kidnappers to close down his petrol pump,” they added.

The Taliban had also warned transporters in the tribal areas to purchase oil from the petrol pumps owned by the government. The sources said that the threats from the Taliban had come in the wake of reports that private contractors were importing more than 726,000 litres of subsidised diesel to Afghanistan per day due to which Pakistan lost about Rs32 million daily.

Citing statistics of the ministry of petroleum, the sources added that during May to July, about 82,000 metric tons of oil was smuggled to Afghanistan from the Fata petrol pumps. During the last few months, supply of oil to petrol pumps in North and South Waziristan had increased by more than 2,000 per cent and the Taliban could have issued the warning after knowing that a huge quantity of petrol was being smuggled from these areas to Afghanistan.

Sources said that the Taliban had asked the petrol pumps to desist from smuggling of the commodity to the neighbouring country, saying that the oil smuggled from the Fata, were used by jets of Nato forces and Afghan army that killed innocent tribesmen inside Pakistan.