Pakistan to help resume ISAF supply

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Pakistani security will escort convoys taking supplies to NATO-led forces in Afghanistan to deter recurrence of militant attacks on them, an official said.

The official told Dawn newspaper the Pakistani government planned to reopen the Peshawar-Torkham highway to facilitate the resumption of supplies to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

A group of militants, claiming to be supporters of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, last week hijacked 13 trucks carrying supplies for the NATO forces and the World Food Program on the main highway in the Khyber Pass region. The incident forced local authorities to suspend the supply transport and close the 32-mile long Peshawar-Torkham highway.

The Dawn report quoted sources as saying the highway closure was intended to put a new security plan in place. They said security forces, whose strength has been increased, would now escort the convoys.

Until early this year, up to about 400 heavy vehicles carried supplies and goods every day to Afghanistan. But growing militancy in the region had forced a sharp decline in the traffic.

The report said the United States ships 75 percent of supplies for its troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan, including 40 percent of fuel used by them.