Security beefed up at Nato supply terminals

PESHAWAR: Peshawar police have beefed up security in and around the Nato supply terminals and have launched joint patrolling together with FC’s paramilitary troops, police sources said.According to police sources, Nato supply terminals were being frequently attacked by militants therefore police and Frontier Corps will be securing the terminals from now and on. Sources also informed that suspected vehicles and passersby are being strictly monitored meanwhile, forces have been put on high alert to deal with any unpleasant incident.After paramilitary troops were withdrawn from Nato terminals on the Ring Road for Muharram in Peshawar, militants once again launched attacks on parking bays of two terminals in the wee hours of Tuesday, in all, firing six rockets.The parking lots were attacked six times during the first 13 days of December. At least, three persons were killed while over 300 Humvees, military trucks, trailers and containers laden with valuable goods were reduced to ashes in the attacks.“Militants attacked the Faisal Terminal and the Khyber Ittifaq Terminal at midnight with rockets from the nearby fields on Tuesday. Four containers were gutted in the Khyber Terminal and two in the Faisal Terminal,” a police official told this scribe.A head constable, along with eight constables, has been deployed at critical terminals while police vans patrol the nine-kilometre stretch to avoid future attacks on logistics being transported for the allied forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.Paramilitary forces were also directed to patrol the area between Hazarkhwani and Bara road. However, according to locals, the paramilitary forces were not seen patrolling the road after they were called to the city for Muharram duty.The Tuesday’s attack exposed loopholes in the security arrangements for the terminals, where containers are placed in open fields without even boundary walls. Reuters adds: The supply route through the border town of Chaman in Balochistan leading to Kandahar has been largely free of attacks, at least on the Pakistani side.