BOAC: I agree, that is the point I tried to make originally, this is all routine stuff, see below comments.
Mr Angry:
My experience is turnrounds in Afghan are never quick, if the aircraft did come from Europe then we could reasonably expect the FDP to be long??
Yes, if that were indeed the case these guys would be getting late into theirs, but because we don't have that information, there's no reason to assume that anything was unplanned about this routing or that they were anywhere near discretion. It could even be the case that they crew rested nearby before going empty to Bastion to get the cargo. It could be that they were waiting for confirmation of permits and that for operational reasons on the day maybe they had to get out of Bastion because they had a limited window there; and perhaps Bagram was a more viable option to park up and wait for this to happen. At this point they would effectively be "stuck" in Afghanistan until the territories to the south grant overflight. Look at the map, the only other option would be to go the long way round Iran via various places, including the likes of Syria -which is starting to get a little tenuous, but if that was the case it would mean two things - it would have to happen the next day; DWC would probably not be the next stop. If this scenario was correct then the fact DWC was the next stop suggests that they got the permits they needed, eventually and were able to continue the flight within their normal FDP. Again I emphasise the if!
Matelo: the definition of diplomatic or non-diplomatic cargo is not as black and white as one might expect. These are military vehicles being flown from a military airbase, it is up to the territory considering the permit application to decide whether they are "diplomatic" or not and it matters not one iota whether they are inside a civilian aircraft, or are unarmed or whatever. Going via Iran is virtually inconceivable, which only leaves Pakistan, and they can and do insist such loads are handled via diplomatic channels if they so wish.
Apologies for the "essay" on this subject, my reason for going into so much detail is not to speculate as to the actual scenario faced by this aircraft, but to illustrate that these situations are quite normal for this type of mission, in that part of the world. Compared with any other flight most other places on the globe, the processes and challenges are very different. Looking from the outside, it is easy to look at the routing in question and think there is something unusual about it, but there simply isn't anything worth wasting time looking at here, its just everyday Afghanistan ops.