April 12, 2009

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - About 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan that lies along a key supply route used by U.S. and NATO troops, wounding three guards and torching eight cement trucks Sunday, police said.

Militants in Pakistan frequently attack cargo terminals and other stops used by vehicles taking supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan through the legendary Khyber Pass.

Scores of trucks have been damaged and several people have died, adding urgency to U.S. efforts to find safer supply routes.

The latest attack started around 2 a.m. on the outskirts of the main northwestern city of Peshawar, local police officer Gharibullah Khan told The Associated Press.

"They fired rockets and used automatic weapons and torched at least eight trailers carrying cement," he said.

A gunbattle at the scene wounded three guards, one of whom was in critical condition, Khan said.

Filmmaker freed

Also Sunday, a government official said captors had freed Satish Anand, a renowned filmmaker kidnapped about six months ago in the southern city of Karachi, in Bannu, a district in Pakistan's northwest.

Kidnappings have increased in parts of Pakistan as the security situation has deteriorated. Some of the money from the criminal enterprise is believed to help fund the insurgency.

Anand is a member of Muslim-majority Pakistan's small Hindu community and the uncle of Juhi Chawla, a Bollywood actress and beauty queen. He owns a large studio that makes feature films and TV soap operas.

Sharfuddin Memon, the head of the Citizens' Police Liasion Committee, would not say if a random was paid for the Saturday night release but that the groups involved had links to lawless tribal regions in northwestern Pakistan, where al-Qaida and the Taliban have strongholds.

"The groups include both the extremists and the criminals," Memon told AP.