Taliban hijack NATO convoy in Pakistan

by Sanjay Jha | November 11, 2008 at 04:41 am

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Latest reports coming in from Pakistan says that Pakistani security forces have retrieved 15 trucks that had been hijacked by the Taliban earlier in the day en route to Afghanistan to deliver goods to US-led coalition forces.

A convoy carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan was hijacked by the Taliban in Pakistan's lawless restive tribal belt adjoining Afghanistan border. Thirteen containers of NATO supplies and at least one US Army Humvee were taken by the Taliban as the convoy traveled through the Khyber tribal agency en route to Afghanistan.

Most supplies, including fuel, for U.S. and other Western forces battling a Taliban insurgency in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through neighboring Pakistan, which is also facing growing militant violence.

Militants in Pakistan have looted 12 trucks carrying supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan, officials say.

The trucks were carrying two Humvee armoured vehicles and food supplies. They were hijacked on Monday as they travelled through the Khyber Pass.

Later, the trucks were found abandoned in a valley. There is no word yet on the 26 people who were taken captive.

The road is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling against the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Hauliers say that over 350 trucks daily carry an average of 7,000 tonnes of goods over the Khyber Pass to Kabul.

'Most recent'

"The containers have been released. They were abandoned in a mountainous area. They are empty," a local official in the Khyber Agency tribal area told the BBC.

Officials say they have tightened security in the area and increased the number of check posts following the hijacking.