Uptick in violence: Balochistan top judge escapes bomb attack

Two more power pylons blown up in Nasirabad.

QUETTA: Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai escaped a roadside bomb attack in Naushki district, some 150 kilometres southeast of Quetta.

According to a Levies official, unidentified militants remotely detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Reko Sultan Golai area of Naushki moments after the chief justice drove past the area.

“No one was hurt in the explosion nor was any damage reported,” Naushki Deputy Commissioner Qudos Mengal told The Express Tribune. “Chief Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai arrived [safely] in Quetta in the afternoon,” an official of the Balochistan High Court told The Express Tribune. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Security forces are investigating the incident.

Separately, suspected militants blew up two more electricity pylons of 220 KV transmission lines in the Chattar area of Nasirabad early Saturday, hours after workers had fixed the power lines that were damaged on February 7.

Last week, militants blew up two pylons in the same area, sparking a fresh energy crisis in Balochistan. National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) officials and labourers concluded the repair work on Friday, helping reduce the energy crisis from its nightmarish levels. But within a few hours, militants detonated two more power pylons.

“The two power pylons were blown up in the same area when we left the area after concluding the repair work,” an NTDC engineer in Nasirabad told The Express Tribune.

“Merely 200 to 300MW electricity is being supplied to major parts of Balochistan against the total requirement of 1,650MW,” an official of the NTDC told The Express Tribune as the shortfall in 16 districts of the province topped 1,350MW.

The outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attack on the power pylons. The group’s spokesperson, Sarbaz Baloch, told Quetta-based media outlets via satellite phone that the BRA had carried out the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2015.