Balochistan unrest: Saboteurs blow up gas pipeline

Damaged gas pipeline was supplying 130 million cubic feet gas to Quetta, states statement issued by SSGC.

QUETTA: Households were left shivering in the freezing cold in Balochistan on Monday after gas supplies to several cities were disrupted. Militants earlier blew up an 18 inch diameter gas pipeline in Subatpur area of Naseerabad district. People particularly in Quetta, Mastung, Sibi, Bolan, Kalat, Naseerabad and other parts of the province were badly affected. “The damaged gas pipeline was supplying 130 million cubic feet gas to Quetta,” stated a statement issued by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). Several major parts of the province will face low gas pressure during the next 24 hours it said. As many as four police officials and two watchmen sustained burn injuries when the IED attached to the pipeline went off, local police chief SHO Ali Gohar Lehri was quoted as saying.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2014.