KARACHI, Aug 21: As the US and Nato gear up to withdraw most of their troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, a large number of container vessels and vehicle carriers have started anchoring off the city’s two ports since early this year. Early this year, the pace of arrival of vessels taking back military hardware and heavy vehicles of the US and Nato was slow. But over the last couple of months the pace of arrival of such ships has picked up.

The flow of military cargo is still a two-way traffic. According to shipping manifests of several vessels anchoring at the two ports over the past six months, the western forces are importing military hardware for Afghan forces that are going to take over security responsibilities in their country after the withdrawal of Nato troops.

The manifests of two vessels — the MV Prestige New York and MV Liberty Promise, which anchored at the Karachi Port on July 3 and July 27 — showed they carried military hardware meant for the US forces and for the Afghan Central Supply Depot and Afghan National Army Depot.

Shipping sources told Dawn a RoRo (roll-on and roll-off) vehicle carrier, the MV Freedom, called at Port Qasim on Monday and 374 military vehicles were loaded onto it. In June, around 290 vehicles were loaded onto another RoRo vehicle carrier, the MV Resolve, anchored at Port Qasim.