LANDI KOTAL, Nov 10: Militants hijacked 13 containers carrying supplies for Nato forces from the highway linking Pakistan with Afghanistan after a brazen attack on Monday, as paramilitary personnel watched from the nearby Jamrud Fort.

The containers were ambushed by dozens of heavily armed men from Wazir Dhand, Teddi Bazaar and Sur Qamar on the Peshawar-Torkham highway. Several Khasadar checkpoints are located nearby.

“It happened on the international highway and you can imagine the implications this can have for us,” an official told Dawn.

He said Taliban seized the containers on the road and emptied them “in clear view of paramilitary personnel” deployed at Jamrud Fort, but they did not take any action.

The militants were later seen driving around in Jamrud area of Khyber Agency, near Peshawar, in military vehicles taken away from the containers. They had hoisted flags and banners of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and its leader Baitullah Mehsud on the vehicles.

Local people said most of the militants in the group, including its leader, appeared to be from Afghanistan’s Nangrahar province and others from Mohmand and Waziristan.

The official said the local administration had been warning the government that Taliban were gaining strength in Jamrud and the issue had also been discussed during last week’s visit to Peshawar by the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik.

After desperate calls by the administration, helicopter gunships were sent to retrieve the goods, but by then the militants had managed to shift the merchandise, including wheat.

A 12-year-old schoolboy, Rahim Khan, was killed and six other people, among them two militants, were injured in a 15-minute attack by three helicopters in Ghundi Shaga area. The injured were taken to a hospital in Peshawar.

Officials said since paramilitary forces were deployed in strength to Bajaur and other areas, they did not have enough troops to combat the growing militancy in Jamrud.

Jamrud Political Tehsildar Bakhtiar Mohmand insisted that Khasadar personnel had fired at the militants to prevent the hijacking.

He alleged that Khyber Rifles did not help the Khasadars in preventing such attacks. Mr Mohmand said supporters of Baitullah Mehsud were involved in the incident. Local Taliban leader Mustafa Kamal threatened to retaliate if security forces did not stop shelling civilians in Khyber Agency.

Transporters of fuel and other supplies to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan expressed concern over increasing incidents of hijacking of their vehicles and sale of the stolen goods. They said the government had not compensated them for the losses suffered in such incidents.