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| Owners directed not to store Nato supplies for night |
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Security steps urged to avert militant attacks
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Authorities have directed owners of the 16 container terminals at the Ring Road not to store Nato supplies after sunset to avert any militant attack, a source said Wednesday.
Management of these parking lots have been directed to ensure shifting of valuable goods, ammunition, Humvee vehicles, armoured personnel carriers (APCs), military trucks, food and fuel during day-time so that they would not suffer any loss in case of attack from the militants at night.
“Supply for Nato troops is going on. We have only directed the owners of these terminals not to lodge anything valuable for the night or arrange proper security,” a police official, requesting anonymity, told The News.
He added that contractors of these terminals were being given a huge amount for trans-shipping and security of the con-tainers and military trucks, but they did not spend anything on protection of these supplies.
Police had arrested owner of the Al-Faisal Terminal last week after two consecutive attacks by militants in as many days. Several others were also detained and grilled for not taking adequate security measures to protect the valuable military goods. An official, visiting the city to assess the loss to the Nato supplies in the terminal during the two attacks, was later picked up by unidentified kidnappers. He is yet to be recovered.
It was reported in the media on Wednesday that militants had released videotape of the biggest attack on any container terminal in last December. Encouraged by the inadequate security measures for these parking lots, around 150 suspected militants had torched over 171 military vehicles, Humvees and military goods in single attack in December last.
Authorities had already directed contractors of these terminals to wind up and shift to safer places in Punjab. However, Punjab is reportedly not allowing them to shift to Hassanabdal, Mianwali and other districts after continuous protests by the dwellers of these towns.
The shifting of container terminals from Peshawar was decided after over 400 trailers, containers, military trucks and Humvees were torched by militants in almost a dozen attacks on the Nato terminals in the provincial capital.
Several people were killed and injured in these assaults during which attackers used rocket launchers, petrol bombs, time bombs and other lethal weapons. The NWFP cabinet had directed the authorities to shift parking lots to safer places to avoid any attacks in the future.
A small number of containers were allowed to be kept in terminals on the Ring Road with the directives to police and other security forces to take adequate measures for their security. As many as 16 parking lots were set up on both sides of the Ring Road between Hazarkhwani and Pishtakhara that used to trans-ship goods worth billions of rupees everyday for Nato forces operating across the border in Afghanistan.
These terminals included, Waqas Terminal, Khyber-P Terminal, Bilal-I, II, III terminals, Al-Faisal Terminal, Pak Afghan Terminal, Insaf Terminal, Farah Zaman Terminal, Digro Terminal, Pak Kabul Terminal, Rahman Baba Terminal, World Port Terminal, Sindh Terminal, UF-2 Terminal and Khatoot Terminal. No proper security measures have been put in place for the security of military vehicles and valuable goods in these parking lots, majority of which were not even having boundary walls.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
