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Pakistan Cuts Off Supply Lines To U.S. Forces In Afghanistan
In a major development, Pakistan’s federal government announced on Friday the disconnection of supply lines through Pakistan to allied forces stationed in Afghanistan.
The move was apparently a reaction to a ground attack on a border village in South Waziristan agency by NATO forces.
Khyber Agency political authorities claimed to have received verbal directives to immediately halt transportation of all goods meant for the U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan for an indefinite period.
Authorities said the decision was taken in the wake of the growing unrest in Khyber Agency, which provides the country’s only ground link to Afghanistan, adding, "Until now, drivers of the vehicles carrying goods meant for the foreign forces in Afghanistan were directed to reach the tribal agency between 7am-10am; [the vehicles] were then escorted to the border town of Torkhum by the Khassadar force."
The authorities claimed that in light of the recurring attacks on Khassadar forces personnel during the past week, and the abduction of several personnel, it had become difficult for security forces to guarantee security for the supply lines.
Independent sources, however, claimed that the government feared tribesmen’s retaliation against a recent NATO ground attack in Angoor Adda, South Waziristan Agency, that brought condemnation from various quarters, including the Pakistan government itself.
North West Frontier Province Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani likened that attack to aggression against a sovereign state, saying that the people of the country expected the Pakistan Army to respond appropriately to it, and adding that some 20 innocent people, most of them women and children, had lost their lives in it.
The U.S. government accepted responsibility for the attack but offered no apology, instead announcing that if necessary it would launch more such attacks against the militants across the border.
Source: The News, Pakistan, September 6, 2008
Posted at: 2008-09-07
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