{"id":86262,"date":"2026-06-16T23:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/the-bikers-battling-extreme-heat-and-armed-conflict-to-smuggle-iranian-fuel-to-pakistan-2\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:52:00","slug":"the-bikers-battling-extreme-heat-and-armed-conflict-to-smuggle-iranian-fuel-to-pakistan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=86262","title":{"rendered":"The bikers battling extreme heat and armed conflict to smuggle Iranian fuel to Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n

Mazaar’s small motorbike is so laden with plastic canisters filled with petrol that there’s barely room for him to sit.<\/b><\/p>\n

His worn-out bike is carrying five 70-litre oil containers, weighing roughly 600 pounds (272kg) in total.<\/p>\n

The fuel hangs precariously from the sides of his bike, strapped on with rope and string.<\/p>\n

He bought it at an open-air fuel market in Mastung, in Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest and poorest province, where he lives.<\/p>\n

Pick-up trucks loaded with plastic containers take fuel there to sell, having smuggled it across the border from Iran.<\/p>\n

While the illegal smuggling of petroleum products from Iran into Pakistan has been taking place for decades, there are signs it has been increasing in recent months as a result of the US-Israeli war against Iran.<\/p>\n

With the war heavily disrupting flows of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices have surged, boosting demand in Pakistan for cheaper smuggled petrol and diesel from Iran.<\/p>\n

Like thousands of smugglers in Balochistan, Mazaar, whose name we’ve changed for his safety, ferries fuel to other open-air markets and unofficial petrol stations.<\/p>\n

He’s getting ready to travel 350km (about 220 miles) through one of the hottest regions on Earth to take the fuel to the neighbouring province, Sindh.<\/p>\n

Temperatures in Balochistan can reach up to 50C (120F), causing the plastic fuel canisters to swell and soften.<\/p>\n

If they split or the lid leaks while Mazaar is riding, there’s a risk of the fuel catching fire and even exploding. Smugglers are regularly killed this way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Mazaar’s small motorbike is so laden with plastic canisters filled with petrol that there’s barely room…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3587,4627,10255,1088,3456,6065,671,328,1190,8590],"class_list":["post-86262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-armed","tag-battling","tag-bikers","tag-conflict","tag-extreme","tag-fuel","tag-heat","tag-iranian","tag-pakistan","tag-smuggle"],"yoast_head":"\nThe bikers battling extreme heat and armed conflict to smuggle Iranian fuel to Pakistan - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c621jr3yy09o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The bikers battling extreme heat and armed conflict to smuggle Iranian fuel to Pakistan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c621jr3yy09o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-16T23:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782300958_f1984f90-697f-11f1-8e1d-bbbb1017d210.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The bikers battling extreme heat and armed conflict to smuggle Iranian fuel to Pakistan - 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