PESHAWAR, July 8: The Afghan government has sent life-saving drugs and surgical equipment to avert a humanitarian crisis in the strife-torn Parachinar and other parts of the Kurram Agency, where hospitals are running short of medicines because of a nine-month-old blockade of the area by local Taliban militants.

Sources said that President Hamid Karzai had sent the medicl consignment valued at Rs8 million to Parachinar, the agency’s headquarters, on humanitarian grounds. It was handed over to tribal elders on Tuesday on behalf of the Afghan president.

Hospitals in the Kurram Agency are facing an acute shortage of medicines and people injured in clashes and other patients could not be taken to Peshawar and other parts of the country because of the closure of the main Thall-Parachinar road by Taliban.

Doctors at the Agency Headquarters Hospital feared that any further delay in the supply of medicines and essential equipment could create a humanitarian crisis. Sources said the government was yet to take affective measures to open the main road for resumption of supplies of medicines and essential commodities to the area.

The main road, the only supply line, has remained blocked since November following clashes in the area and the Afghan government has allowed the people stranded in Parachinar and other parts of the Kurran Agency to travel to Peshawar via Afghanistan.

A convoy carrying food items was attacked by Taliban militants near Sadda town last month. The militants killed 12 drivers and set 14 trucks on fire.