Militants torch container, kill two in NW Pakistan

Unknown militants attacked a private container mistaking it for a NATO vehicle and killed its two drivers on Friday morning in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, local sources said.

Sources said some unknown gunmen opened indiscriminate firing at a container and killed its driver and co-driver on spot in the Khyber agency, a tribal region in the northwest along the border with Afghanistan.

After the attack, the militants dragged out the bodies of the two staffers and then torched the vehicle before running away.

The unlucky container loaded with the luggage for domestic usage was traveling to Afghanistan from Peshawar city, capital of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

When the container reached the Jamrood Shaks road, some militants hiding in nearby mountains attacked the vehicle mistakenly taking it as a NATO container, said local sources.

After the reopening of the Torkham border, the administration of the region has blocked the supply from Peshawar to Torkham after dozens of drivers had started protest and block the Pakistan- Afghan road and demanded the security on the rout.

Local sources said militants in the area had warned the local people not to involve in the NATO supply business otherwise they would be killed and their houses would be burnt.

The warning was delivered after the Pakistani government reinstated the NATO supplies following a 10-day cutoff. During the period of ban, at least 168 NATO containers were burnt and 20 persons were killed by Taliban militants.

Source: Xinhua