The capital police and the city administration were completely unaware of the existence of the terminals for NATO trucks carrying supplies to Afghanistan, which were attacked on Tuesday night by unidentified militants, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.At least 80 NATO vehicles loaded onto 60 trucks were completely burnt in the attack that killed seven people and injured another four, on the outskirts of Islamabad on Tuesday.
"Police did not know that NATO supplies were arriving at this place, which is why we could not take appropriate measures. The temporary terminal was set up just six days ago," Deputy Inspector General Police Bin Yamin told Daily Times.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amir Ali was also found unaware of the presence of a large number of sensitive supplies in the populated area of Dhoke Paracha, a mere 10-minute drive from the local police station.
"A judicial inquiry by the additional deputy commissioner (Revenue) has been ordered to determine as to why the local administration was unaware of this activity," he said.
According to sources, the managers of the NATO supply operations have introduced a unique mechanism of 'mobile terminals' where supplies are not stocked at any one particular place, rather the off-loading of supplies from trucks coming from Karachi, and their up-loading onto other vehicles destined for Afghanistan, take place simultaneously.
"Generally, the process of off-loading and up-loading takes place simultaneously. This time, however, hundreds of vehicles loaded with heavy machinery for NATO forces were stuck at this terminal. On the other hand, vehicles meant to take the supplies to Afghanistan were nowhere in sight. The management started the off-loading and up-loading process only hours before the attack," said trucker Muhammad Bashir, who has been driving for NATO for four years now. Imranul Haq, another driver standing by his burnt vehicle, told Daily Times that they take instructions from 'invisible' managers through middlemen, to bring the supplies to the marked area. "We only truck the supplies from Karachi Port to the marked area. Trucks from Afghanistan then take over the process. We have also been transporting goods to mobile terminals located between Taxila, Hassan Abdal and the Hattar industrial area," he said.
Minister for Interior Rehman Malik said that the government would review the arrangements of NATO supply movements in the wake of the latest attack on the organisation's convoy. Talking to media at Chaklala Airbase, he said certain elements were stealing oil and goods carried by NATO trucks from Karachi Port. A criminal element is involved in these incidents besides the terrorists, he added.
A special police team has been constituted to hunt down people involved in torching the NATO trailers, a police spokesman said.