Nato trucks destroyed near Pakistan capital

At least seven people have been killed in a brazen night-time assault in which more than 50 trucks carrying fuel and other supplies for western forces in Afghanistan were destroyed on the outskirts of Islamabad.

Previous attacks on Nato supply convoys have been concentrated close to the Afghan border.

“This is very worrying, coming so close to the capital. I would have thought this area was otherwise protected,” said a senior interior ministry official.

Pakistani police detained at least 20 suspected militants after the attack on the trucks parked at a makeshift depot near Tarnol, a suburb of Islamabad, first targeting fuel tankers.

“Within minutes of this attack, fire spread around the compound. People could see flames from a few miles around the location” said Habib Khan, an eyewitness.

Police officials said at least seven people who appeared to be truck drivers were killed while another five were injured.

Kaleem Imam, Islamabad police chief, said the gunmen “kept on firing in the air to prevent emergency services and the police from reaching the spot”.

More than 60 per cent of non-fuel supplies and up to half of the fuel used by western forces in Afghanistan has been passing through Pakistan. Nato has been seeking alternative supply routes into Afghanistan from the north via central Asia.

A Pakistani intelligence official in Lahore, capital of populous Punjab province, said some of the 20 militants arrested after the attack were from his province.

In the past week, a number of security and police officials have warned against the Taliban widening its network of supporters in the Punjab, home to more than 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population.

Last month, two well co-ordinated militant attacks targeting places of worship belonging to the Ahmadiyah sect in Lahore killed at least 80 people.

“If the Taliban are spreading their wings rapidly in the Punjab, then that’s a dangerous development” said the intelligence official in Lahore. “The Punjab angle can be very, very troubling.”