US halts cargo shipment from Afghanistan through Pak

Washington: The United States has temporarily halted shipment of its “retrograde cargo” from Afghanistan in view of the anti-America demonstrations in Pakistan which it believes puts at risk the safety and security of the truckers. “We have voluntarily halted US shipments of retrograde cargo through the Pakistan Ground Line of Communication (GLOC) from Torkham Gate through Karachi to ensure the safety of the drivers contracted to move our equipment,” the Pentagon spokesperson Mark Wright said. The US is aware of the protests that have affected one of the primary commercial transit routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said. [caption id=“attachment_1265283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] President Barack Obama. AP[/caption] “We anticipate we will be able to resume our shipments through this route in the near future,” Wright said. “While we favor shipping cargo via Pakistan because of cost, we have built flexibility and redundancy into our overall system of air, sea and ground routes to transport cargo into and out of Afghanistan. We also anticipate no long-term impact to our retrograde mission,” Wright said. GLOC routes are important to the US, NATO, and Pakistan, he said adding that this was reflected recently in the Joint Statement released during the Washington visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October. PTI