Islamabad, February 27: Four NATO tankers that were burnt earlier on Friday by a series of blasts have caught fire again as an unexploded timed device went off in northwestern Pakistan, police say.
Militants struck a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar on Friday and planted devices on 12 out of 18 parked tankers that were carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
Eleven tankers blew up while one remained safe. Militants also shot dead two guards and two drivers that confronted them.
“An unexploded device in one of the 11 burnt tankers went off and triggered fire, which engulfed four tankers,” local police official Imtiaz Shah told AFP on Saturday.
He said that a bomb disposal squad rushed to the scene and defused another unexploded timed device.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants regularly attack NATO convoys in Pakistan.
The US military and NATO rely heavily on the Pakistani supply route into the landlocked Afghanistan, even more so now that Taliban attacks are on the rise.
Militants in the rugged tribal areas have staged violent attacks in recent months, torching hundreds of NATO vehicles and containers destined for the US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan.
In response, the Pakistani authorities have deployed large contingents of police and military forces on all major arteries in the area to curb the attacks.
Other routes, largely through Russia and the Central Asian states, have proved to be too costly, politically as well as economically.
—-Agencies