Two more NATO oil tankers brunt in Quetta

The Baloch Hal News

Quetta: Two oil tankers destined to provide supplies to NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan were attacked in Quetta city by unidentified persons early on Tuesday morning.

Government officials said unknown attackers had opened fire on NATO supplies on Spiny Road in the provincial capital and managed to escape from the scene. However, the personnel of the law enforcement agencies suspected that this attack had been carried out with the support of the tanker drivers.

One official, who requested anonymity, said drivers and conductors of both the oil tankers had run way before the law enforcement agencies could question them about the nature of the attack While each tanker had a capacity to accumulate 50,000 litters, the remaining fuel inside the tanker at the time of the attack was barely five to ten percent.

“We suspect that the drivers were involved in secretly selling the oil in the open market in order to make personal benefits,” alleged the official, “ in most cases, the trucks or tankers are burnt deliberately by the owners to get more money from various insurance companies.”

The official backed his speculations by saying that the actual route applied by the trucks and oil tankers to NATO forces passes through the Bypass area and there was no reason for these tankers to stop at Spiny Road in the middle of night.

Though attacks on oil tankers and trucks carrying supplies to NATO forces have intensified in Balochistan in the recent months, no group has accepted responsibility for these attacks so far. NATO forces largely depend on the supplies coming to them from Port Qasim to Afghanistan via Balochistan.