Hub, Sept. 15. AFP
Police are yet to determine whether the latest losses were accidental or sabotage.
At least nine tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan were destroyed after an explosion in one of the vehicles triggered a huge fire late Sunday.
“First a blast took place and then more than nine NATO oil tankers caught fire,” said senior police official Ahmad Nawaz Cheema. The incident took place in Hub, Balochistan, some 45 kilometers from Karachi, where the Torkham-bound tankers were loaded with oil.
It is not clear what caused the blast, said authorities, as they investigate whether it was an act of terror or an accident.
“We are investigating the cause of the blast,” said Cheema. No one was killed or wounded in the incident, which took place as the drivers were eating at a roadside hotel, he said.
Overland oil shipments to NATO troops in landlocked Afghanistan resumed through Pakistan less than two weeks ago under tighter security after a five-month suspension due to attacks. Pakistani contractors had stopped driving oil supplies from Karachi to the Torkham crossing on the Afghan border due to frequent strikes on their vehicles.
On Friday, officials said gunmen attacked a convoy of NATO oil tankers in southwest Pakistan overnight, killing a driver and torching eight vehicles.
The NATO combat mission is due to end next year. Pakistan and the United States have signed a deal allowing NATO supply convoys to travel into Afghanistan until the end of 2015.