LAHORE, Feb 19: Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan informed the Punjab assembly on Thursday that two Nato supply facilities, one in Attock and the other in Mianwali, had been closed.

The minister said there was a privately-owned ‘resting area’ in Attock for trucks carrying Nato supplies to Afghanistan and said that orders had been issued to close it immediately.

The minister made the disclosure in the assembly after PML-Q legislator from the district, Malik Sher Ali, insisted that a Nato station existed near the Fatehjang inter-change.

Mr Khan said he had earlier denied the existence of any depot because officials concerned had categorically stated that neither the federal government had issued any such directive nor the provincial government was considering the shifting of any such facility to Punjab.

But, he said, when the MPA insisted that such a depot existed in Attock, he got it rechecked and found a ‘resting area’ over 12 acres of private land which had been rented out to a private company.

Trailers carrying supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan could stay there. There was no depot and there was no storage facility, he said.

The minister said that because the ‘resting area’ had been created without the permission of the government, the district administration had been asked to immediately close it and submit a report into the matter.

The MPA said such stations should not be allowed because they could invite terrorists to commit subversive acts in the area.

Another MPA from Attock reported presence of heavily armed militants and people from the troubled Fata and Swat in the district and asked the government to control their movement to protect Punjab from acts of terrorism.

Meanwhile, the district police of Mianwali have closed a Nato supply transport verification centre in Abbakhel on the Mianwali-Rawalpindi road.

Trucks taking Nato supplies have been using the place for stopovers for a long time. Because of the unrest in Darra Adamkhel, the Nato supply route was changed from the Indus Highway to Muzaffargarh-Mianwali road for its onward journey to Peshawar.

Talking to Dawn, Mianwali police chief Akbar Nasir Khan said that police had asked Nato transporters not to stop over in the district.

“The policy of the Punjab government is to minimise risks posed by terrorists, as these unguarded stopovers can be a big target for terrorists.”