Oil Tanker Explosion Kills at Least 15 in Pakistan
The incident had not disrupted NATO supplies and oil tankers were crossing the border without interruption, local government officials said.
The tanker was damaged when a bomb went off near a boys’ college in Landi Kotal in the tribal region of Khyber Agency. “Fire brigade officials put out the fire but in the mean time, people from neighboring areas had gathered and were trying to take away the oil while another explosion took place, killing 15 people,” said local government official Abdul Nabi.
Two people were injured from burns and were hospitalized at the Landi Kotal Hospital.
Petroleum prices have increased sharply in recent months, sparking protests and rallies across Pakistan.
The Bloomberg news service, citing the Islamabad-based Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority, reported on Saturday that the Pakistani government raised domestic fuel prices as much as 12 percent on May 1, after increasing them 13 percent on April 1, to bring charges in line with international oil prices.
In a separate incident, 16 oil tankers were damaged Friday night in the nearby town of Torkham, at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, from a remote-controlled bomb, said Mr. Nabi, the government official. No one was hurt and there were no claims of responsibility. The tankers were idling at a parking lot, waiting for their turn to enter into Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents and criminals in Pakistan frequently attack trucks carrying supplies for U.S. and NATO troops. The supplies typically arrive in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and travel overland to neighboring Afghanistan.
The attacks on NATO supplies come just a day after a bomb aimed at a two-car convoy carrying American consular officials to work exploded in Peshawar, the provincial capital. No American was killed or seriously wounded but a Pakistani motorcyclist was killed.
Also, On Saturday, opposition politician Imran Khan announced plans for a sit-in in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday to protest the continuing drone attacks by the United States.
Mr. Khan, a former cricket player-turned politician who has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. policy of drone strikes in the country, has been consistently denouncing the attacks, terming them as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
An earlier sit-in organized by his political party Tehreek-e-Insaaf, or Justice Party, in Peshawar in April, drew only a few thousand people, contrary to the expectations of the organizers.
Mr. Khan has said that through his protest on Saturday, his party workers plan to halt the NATO supplies for two days.
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