Pipeline sabotaged: Gas supplies to major Punjab cities remain suspended

Officials say it will take them some time to repair the damaged pipelines.

BAHAWALPUR/ LAHORE:

Supplies to major cities of Punjab and to industries across the province remained suspended on Monday – a day after two pipelines were blown up near Rahim Yar Khan in what is being dubbed the ‘biggest ever sabotage attempt on SNGPL’.

“The blasts have forced us to suspend supplies to all industries of the province,” a spokesperson for the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) told The Express Tribune on Monday.

“Gas supplies to the main cities of Punjab, including Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad and Lahore, have been severely affected,” he added. “The shortage has increased by over 700 mmfcd, bringing the total shortfall to 1,300 mmfcd.”

He called it “the biggest ever sabotage attempt in the history of SNGPL”.

Suspected miscreants sabotaged an 18” diameter pipeline with an explosive device on Sunday night. The blast was so powerful that it also damaged the nearby 30” and 36” diameter pipelines, the SNGPL said in a statement earlier in the day. Sources said the first blast took place around 9:33 pm which was followed by two more blasts at 10 pm.

An SNGPL team was expected to repair the 36” pipeline by Tuesday morning, while the repair of 30” and 18” pipelines would be carried out subsequently, the statement added.

The blasts triggered a huge fire which quickly spread to the nearby hamlets of Shahbaig, Bahudipur Quraishian, Shahpur, Rangpur, Nabipur and Sikandarabad. A woman died and a minor has been missing since the blast took place.

“The raging flames engulfed settlements on an area of four square kilometres and residents fled their homes to take shelter at safe locations,” a resident told The Express Tribune.

Residents said 20 cattle were also killed in the fire that gutted seven mudhouses in the hamlets. “The blast caused a huge crater – 100 feet long and as many feet wide — at the site,” another resident told The Express Tribune.

Sohail Zafar Chatha, the district police officer (DPO), said that their priority was to put out the fire. “After dousing the flames, we will investigate what caused the blast,” he said, adding that it was premature to call it a terrorist act.

Asked about the reported claim of responsibility by the banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA), DPO Chatha said, “He has also seen the media reports – but no group has contacted them to formally claim responsibility.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2014.