PESHAWAR, March 16: Suspected Taliban militants torched 30 vehicles in attack here on Monday on a terminal for trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan.

This was the second such attack in two days.

Twenty vehicles had been burnt in an attack on terminal in the Hazarkhwani area on Sunday.

Truck drivers at the Al-Faisal Terminal told Dawn that over 50 armed men who had entered the compound after breaking the boundary wall firing rockets and Kalashnikovs.

The militants remained in the terminal for about an hour, sprinkled trucks with oil and set them on fire.

Police said the militants who were armed with advanced weapons kept firing to stop them from entering the terminal. They left the place under cover of heavy fire.

There were reports the attackers escaped towards Bara. Transporters Samad Khan and Younus Khan blamed the terminal’s owner for the attack and said drivers had left for Afghanistan but they were called back from the Takht Baig check-post in the Khyber agency.

“The terminal owners had developed differences with the Khasadar force over payment of tax and, therefore, the trucks were asked to return to the terminal,” they said.

“We were not ready to take the risk of parking over vehicles in the terminal at night but did so when the owner assured us about security,” they said.

Police detained a security guard for interrogation, but released him after recording his statement.

The transporters warned that they would stop taking supplies to Nato forces if they were not compensated for the losses they had suffered.
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