CHAMAN, Jan 13: Western military supplies passing through Pakistan to Afghanistan faced more disruption on Tuesday after protesters blocked one route and militants launched the first attack in two weeks on another.

Pakistani supply routes to landlocked Afghanistan are vital for western forces battling the Taliban and these are likely to become more important as the United States builds up its force, perhaps doubling it to 60,000 soldiers this year.

The US military sends 75 per cent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 per cent of the fuel for its troops, the US Defence Department says.

Taliban stepped up attacks on the main route through the Khyber Pass last year and Pakistani forces responded with an offensive in late December to clear militants off the route.

In the first attack since then, militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a truck terminal outside Peshawar on Monday night, damaging the truck carrying food, police said.

The other supply route through the border town of Chaman in Balochistan has been largely free of attacks, at least on the Pakistani side. But Pashtun tribesmen, protesting against security forces searches for militants, have been blocking the road to the border since Saturday.

“Not a single truck has gone to the border in the past three days. We’re in talks to settle things down,” senior provincial government official Khaliq Nazar Kayani told Reuters.

Mr Kayani is based in the town of Qila Abdullah, southwest of the Chaman border crossing, where the protesters have been blocking the road.Tribal elder Abdul Qahar Wadan said the blockade would go on until the government punished those responsible for what he described as unjust searches.

“They have no right to enter our houses without proof. It’s against our customs and honour,” Mr Wadan said.

Hundreds of trucks have been stopped and are parked by the side of the road in Qila Abdullah, residents said.

Usually, about 100 trucks cross into Afghanistan through the Chaman crossing every day, compared with about 300 through the Khyber Pass crossing at Torkham, customs officials say.

Western forces in Afghanistan have played down the impact of the disruption, saying they have stockpiles of supplies.—Reuters