Insurgency in Balochistan: Gas pipeline sabotaged near Dera Bugti

A paramilitary soldier was killed and two others were wounded during a de-mining operation in Nasirabad

QUETTA:

Suspected Baloch separatists blew up a gas pipeline Sunday morning on the outskirts of Bugti Tribal Area, disrupting supplies to the Sui Compressor Plant.

According to an official of the Levies Thana in Dera Bugti, militants had planted explosives beneath the 24-inch diameter gas pipeline, about 15 kilometres away from Dera Bugti town.

“The explosives were detonated Sunday morning which tore off a huge piece of the pipeline running from the Pirkoh Purification Plant to the Sui Compressor Plant,” the official told The Express Tribune by phone from Dera Bugti.

As a result gas supply to Sui was disrupted, he said, adding that the pipeline belonged to the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL).

Security forces and Levies personnel reached the site and started investigation. However, repair work on the damaged pipeline could not be immediately started.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but the outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for such attacks in the past.

Elsewhere in the troubled province, a paramilitary soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a landmine blast in the Chatter area of Nasirabad district on Sunday.

Frontier Corps troops travelled to the Sonwa area of Chatter to clear landmines, according to a police official. One of the paramilitary soldiers inadvertently stepped on a mine. He was killed in the ensuing explosion and his two fellow soldiers were wounded.

Reinforcements were called in immediately as the casualties were driven to the Civil Hospital in Dera Murad Jamali where doctors said the injured soldiers were in critical condition.

“The incident took place when the troops were demining the heavily mined area,” an official told The Express Tribune by phone from Nasirabad. Baloch separatists routinely target the security forces and national installations in the Chatter area. A manhunt was launched for the militants who planted the mines.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2rd, 2015.