ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) claimed a "tactical success" Wednesday after the US military suspended shipments of equipment out of Afghanistan via a key route, citing protests that posed a risk to truck drivers.
Activists in northwest Pakistan, some armed with clubs, have been forcibly searching trucks in an effort to halt NATO supplies in protest over US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.
The unofficial checkpoints began on November 24 after a call to blockade NATO supplies by Khan, the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said on Tuesday that the US had "voluntarily halted" shipments of cargo leaving Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
Torkham is a key transit point used by the Americans and NATO to withdraw military hardware from Afghanistan, as part of a troop pullout set to wrap up by the end of 2014.
Another border crossing point for NATO convoys in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan is not subject to the PTI-led protests, and convoys there are understood to be unaffected by the suspension.
PTI spokeswoman Shireen Mazari hailed the Pentagon's move as a "tactical success" and said the protests would continue.
"The US decision to halt NATO supplies through Torkham doesn't affect our protest and we will continue our protest until drone strikes are stopped," she told AFP.
US officials said trucks have been told to wait for now in holding areas in Afghanistan, with Washington expecting the route to resume operating soon.
A US defence official said Washington believed the Islamabad government fully supported the use of the route and that it would soon restore security to the area.
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