Pakistan may become new obstacle for NATO’s Afghan mission

According to some reports, Pakistan has closed a vital supply route for the US-led war effort across the border in Afghanistan. Fuel tankers and trucks are being stopped from crossing the frontier.

It is believed to be a response to a NATO helicopter raid in which three Pakistani soldiers were killed and three others wounded.

Pakistan is working closely with the US, but for their own people decided to close the rout for a while, as Pakistanis “have faint, surprise and anger over these attacks,” believes Ivan Eland, defense analyst from the Independent Institute, a US think tank.

However Pakistani political analyst Ahmed Quraishi claims there has been no official confirmation of closing the supply route.

“Nobody – neither the military, nor the government – has actually officially confirmed that supplies from the port of Karachi have actually been stopped. What we have seen is that local authorities at one of the crossings – Torqam – have stopped the trucks crossing the border. Obviously this is not an across the board ban on NATO supplies,” Quraishi told RT.

NATO, on the other hand, denies its aircraft entered Pakistani territory and says the reports are being investigated.

The US has been stepping up missile strikes against suspected militants hiding in Pakistan and there have been several cross-border helicopter raids this week.