Peshar - Gunmen in restive northwest Pakistan on
Tuesday attacked container trucks carrying supplies to Nato troops in
Afghanistan, killing a driver, officials said.
It is the first
such attack since Pakistan re-opened its border to Nato supply convoys
three weeks ago after a seven-month blockade staged in protest at a
botched US air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at a border post.
The
Pakistani Taliban have threatened to attack Nato trucks and their
drivers, and right-wing and extremist religious groups have held large
demonstrations against the resumption of supply lines.
Tuesday's
attack took place near the market in Jamrud town on the outskirts of
Peshawar, the main city in the troubled northwest, local administration
official Bakhtiar Khan said.
"Two armed men riding on a motorbike
opened fire on a container carrying supplies for Nato troops across the
border and killed its driver," Khan said, adding that the driver's
helper was seriously wounded.
Another administration official
said the truck was part of a convoy of three or four vehicles travelling
without security protection when they came under attack.
Bullet to the head
A hospital official in Jamrud confirmed the casualties.
"The
driver was shifted to our hospital in serious condition, he died
later," doctor Azam Khan of the state-run Jamrud hospital said.
He received one bullet in the head and two in the chest, he added.
Pakistan
on 3 July decided to re-open overland routes to Nato convoys crossing
into Afghanistan, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said sorry
for the air strike deaths last November.
The crisis was the
worst episode in Pakistan's decade-long partnership with Washington in
the war in Afghanistan, with both sides still struggling to overcome a
breakdown in trust.
So far relatively few Nato trucks have
actually trickled across the border, with owners awaiting a deal on
compensation for seven months' missed work and security guarantees in
the southern port city of Karachi.
Drone strikes
The
convoy attack came a day after a US drone attack on a compound in the
northwest killed at least 10 militants, according to officials - the
first drone strike in the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
There
has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since May
when a Nato summit in Chicago could not strike a deal to end the
blockade on Nato supplies travelling to Afghanistan.
Washington
considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main
hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and
in Afghanistan.