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Pakistan probes blasts that destroyed 38 trucks, hurt 100 people

Other News Materials 24 March 2008 17:08 (UTC +04:00)

(dpa) - Authorities on Monday launched a probe into a series of blasts that destroyed 38 trucks carrying fuel for NATO forces and injured about 100 people on a Pakistani border crossing, officials said.

Two time-devices exploded in the parking area of Torkham customs post on the Pakistan-Afghan border on Sunday night, triggering a series of blasts and huge fire that engulfed the oil tankers waiting there for clearance.

"Some border guards and other officials on the border crossing have been detained for questioning," a government official Bismillah Khan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The investigators suspect that the pro-Taliban militants might have gained some assistance from an insider.

"Around 100 people suffered burn injuries in the last night's attack," khan added.

He said on Sunday night that two people were killed in the incident. But he explained on the following day that two severely burnt persons who were taken as dead by the relief workers were declared alive at the hospital.

Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal area have repeatedly targeted tankers carrying oil for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

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