Gas utitily on alert as two blasts rock stations

Members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan could be behind the attacks, says SSP Khan.

KARACHI: Talks to improve security at Sui Southern Gas Company are underway after two blasts rocked two town border stations of the organisation in the past week.

A time bomb containing 200 grammes of explosives blew up the organisation’s installation in Qayyumabad on Monday. A few days ago, another similar explosion occurred in a gas station near Nipa Chowrangi, Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Police officials suspect that the same organisation is behind the two attacks which, they claim, are aimed at harassing members of the gas utility and the government.

“If they actually intended to blow up the facility in Qayyumabad, they would have used explosives weighing 200 kilogrammes instead of those weighing 200 grammes,” SP Crime Investigation Department (CID) Mazhar Mashwani told The Express Tribune. “Additionally, they would have planted the device inside the station and not outside it.”



According to CID’s Anti-Extremist Cell chief SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, either a Baloch nationalist party, or, more likely, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were responsible for the attacks. “They wish to display their strength and to terrorise people by destroying government-owned businesses.”

The spokesperson of the gas utility, Inayatullah Ismail, explained that at least 18 town border stations of the gas utility are located in the city. The organisation hadn’t received any threats or demands for extortion before or after the incident, he added.

A case has been registered against unidentified persons. DSP Baloch Colony Altaf Hussain explained that different departments are collaborating with the specialised units to investigate the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.