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Page last updated at 10:44 GMT, Monday, 17 November 2008
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Khyber pass reopened to convoys

The militants posed for cameras after hijacking the trucks last week

Pakistan has reopened a key route for fuel tankers and trucks supplying international forces in Afghanistan.

An official said more than 100 security personnel were escorting a convoy of trucks through the Khyber Pass in the north-western region on Monday.

Additional troops were also deployed in the area.

The government had barred the movement of convoys last week after militants hijacked and looted 12 trucks and two Humvee armoured vehicles.

map

Most of the supplies for the foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped into the Pakistani port of Karachi, then driven across the border either at Chaman, in Balochistan, or through the Khyber Pass.

Pakistani officials blamed last Monday's hijacking on militants loyal to the Taleban commander Baitullah Mehsud.

The trucks were later found abandoned and looted.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says there has been an increasing number of hijackings in the Khyber region, primarily of trucks and cargo bound for Afghanistan.

About 24 trucks and oil-tankers have been attacked in the past month, transport operators say.



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