Pakistan Agrees to Reopen the NATO Supply Route After Hillary Clinton's Apology
Washington; July 4,2012:
Pakistan has finally agreed to re-open the NATO supply routes after US Secretary of the state Hillary Clinton apology to the nation. The route is closed after NATO forces attacked Pakistan's military posts which resulted into deaths of 24 Pakistani troops and injured 13 others in the attack.
In a phone call to Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Clinton said sorry for the losses and requested Pakistan to re-open the supply routes. Clinton also assured the nation that the similar incident wont take place again. Later in a statement Mrs. Clinton said that Pakistan has accepted the apology an will reopen the route soon.
The route which was closed by Pakistan was used by NATO trucks to supply fuel,food etc to the U.S. and international forces serving in Afghanistan. After Pakistan closed the route United States had to pay $104 million for the alternative route passing through central Asia. The cost is 6 times greater than what US had to pay for the previous route.
The decision regarding the opening of routes was taken in a meeting of meeting of the Defense Committee of the Cabinet on Tuesday. The cabinet finally agreed on keeping the current transit charge of $250 per truck. Earlier Pakistan was demanding $5000 from US for per NATO truck passing through the border. Cabinet also made a decision that the route would not be used to supply Lethal cargo.
Previously the tensions aroused after US led NATO forces engaged Pakistani security forces at two Pakistani military check-posts along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The attack which was known as Salala incident took place on 26 November 2011.
Two Apache helicopters attacked Pakistani posts along with other aircraft. The attack resulted in deaths of 24 Pakistan military force including two high ranked officers Major Mujahid Mirani and Captain Usman Ali.
The attack was severely condemned by Pakistani people and also many other nations. Along with the supply route Pakistan had also forced United States to vacate the Shamsi airfield in Balochistan. US used this airfield for launching Drone attacks in Afghanistan.
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