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The recent attacks on supply depots have underscored the vulnerability of the supply lines through Pakistan. (Reuters) |
PESHAWAR — Angered by indiscriminate American strikes on their tribal areas, Pakistani truck owners have decided to stop delivering supplies for foreign troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
"We have refused to transport any goods to Afghanistan (for NATO troops) in protest against US attacks on our tribal areas," Mohammad Shakir Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association, told IslamOnline.net.
"We have told the NATO and local authorities that we will not deliver to foreign troops any more until and unless the problem is resolved."
Haulage companies in Pakistan declared on Monday, December 16, that they have stopped delivering supplies to NATO and US military in Afghanistan.
"We have been thinking about suspending the supplies over the past few months. From now, there will be no more supplies," Afridi stressed.
He explains that the truckers felt "it's a matter of shame" to deliver supplies to foreign forces bombing their own people.
"We also belong to the same tribal belt. How can we bear such attacks on our brothers," said the official whose powerful Afridi tribe has strong roots along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
He added that truckers were equally infuriated by incessant drone attacks in the Afghan areas of the tribal belt.
"Afghans (are) also our brothers."
The US has stepped up its campaign against alleged militants in the restive 700-kilometer tribal belt with a series of missile strikes from predator drones.
It has conducted more than 40 drone attacks inside Pakistan during the past ten months killing hundreds of tribesmen, including children and women.
Lifeline
Pakistani transporters affirm that their trucks offered the main lifeline for Western troops in Afghanistan.
"We are the major suppliers to Afghanistan, transporting about 60-70 percent of goods," said Afridi, whose association represents various transport companies involved in supplying to NATO forces across the tribal belt.
"We have around 3,500 vehicles, of which 1500 are oil tankers."
A series of major attacks targeted supply depots in northwest Pakistan in the past two weeks in which hundreds of NATO and US vehicles were destroyed.
This has underscored the vulnerability of the supply lines through Pakistan.
As much as 80 percent of the supplies -- from food to fuel and heavy equipment -- go through the single 55-kilometre road that threads through the Khyber Pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The containers are first shipped to Pakistan's largest port, Karachi in the south before being transported in tankers and vehicles to supply depots in the northern city of Peshawar.
They are then stored in the city until being transported to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass.
The Pakistani transport companies' decision is likely to deal a blow to NATO and US forces, who are now reportedly exploring alternative routes in northern Afghanistan to get their critical supplies.
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