Suspected militants attacked and set fire to at least 20 tankers carrying oil for Nato and US troops in Afghanistan on Monday, the third such strike inside Pakistan in as many days, the police said.
The attack not far from the capital Islamabad took place on a supply line that has been stalled because of a temporary border closing imposed by Pakistani authorities to protest a Nato helicopter attack that killed three Pakistan troops last week.
It will raise the stakes in the closure, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad but has been welcomed by Islamist groups opposed to Pakistan's support of the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Police officer Umer Hayat said three people were killed and blamed Monday’s attack on "terrorists". The attackers opened fire on trucks that were parked at a poorly guarded terminal before setting them afire, he and other officers said.
The trucks were en route or waiting to travel to the Torkham border crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass, which is used to bring fuel, military vehicles, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's other main route into landlocked Afghanistan, in Chaman in the southwest, has remained open. While Nato and the US have alternative supply routes to Afghanistan, the Pakistani ones are the cheapest and most convenient. Most of the coalition's non-lethal supplies are transported over the Pakistani soil after being unloaded at docks in Karachi, a port city in the south.
On Friday, a day after the closure of the Khyber Pass route to Nato and US traffic, there were two attacks on oil tankers headed to the country. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for at least one of them, and vowed to launch more.