April 9, 2003	Wednesday	Safar 6, 1424

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MULTAN/LAHORE, April 8: Gas supply to industrial units in the Punjab and NWFP was suspended on Tuesday after two blasts blew up main pipelines of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) near Bhutta Wahan, in Rahim Yar Khan district.

The pipelines carry gas from Sui and Qadirpur gas fields.

According to the SNGPL, this is the fourth ‘sabotage’ since January. The police, however, ruled out any sabotage activity. The fresh incident has cut upcountry supply by 60 per cent.

Police said two people belonging to the nearby village Farzand Ali received severe burn injuries and about 50 sheep were burnt alive due to the fire which followed explosions at around 4.25am.

Rahim Yar Khan DPO Sarmad Saeed Khan told Dawn that a house near the pipelines was completely gutted, while three houses were partially damaged. Police and Rangers evacuated the villagers.

He said the fire was extinguished at 6am.

Sadiqabad ASP Pervez Chandio said a gas leak which stated at around 3am had caused the blasts at 4.25am. He said gas supply was suspended from the compressor junction (AC-X) at Bhong to put out the fire.

The SNGPL officials, however, think otherwise. Company’s engineers from Multan who reached the site for repair work quoted their area watchman as saying that a projectile had hit the exposed part of one of the pipelines which caused the leak. After a short while, the pipe laid underground exploded. The other pipeline also blasted a few minutes later.

They said technicians had found a long piece of wire used to explode dynamite besides some metallic objects from the site. They said the way both the pipelines had been torn apart, suggested that it was a sabotage. They said police were supposed to be there to guard the pipelines following the recent blasts but they were simply trying to cover up lapse on their part.

ASP Chandio, however, said police were the first to reach the site and there was no indication which could suggest that it was a sabotage. He said the SNGPL people had been repairing the transmission lines in the area recently.

SNGPL chief Abdur Rashid Lone told Dawn in Lahore that it was a sabotage because “a bomb fuse has been found from the site and the nature of the damage done to the pipes”.

He said two main pipelines of 30” and 24” diameter at a canal-crossing near the Ahmadpur Lamha distributary, some 63km downstream the Sui Gas Fields, were blown up, whereas a smaller line of 18” dia remained intact.

He said gas supply had been stopped to all power and fertilizer plants linked with the SNGPL system. He said supply had also been curtailed to another 100 units of general industry. But domestic and commercial consumers and the compressed natural gas (CNG) stations were getting normal supply till the filing of this report. He was optimistic that the industrial supply would be restored sometimes on Wednesday.

He also ruled out the gas leak theory on the ground that the company maintained a computerized monitoring of pressure round the clock. “Any leak is spotted within minutes and gas supply is suspended from the nearest wall assembly.”

It may be mentioned that the government had deployed Rangers after the first three blasts to protect the 37km-long gas lines falling in the area which witnessed the Bugti-Mazari tribal clash.

According to our Rahim Yar Khan correspondent, the site of the latest blast is also in the striking distance of tribal outlaws, mainly the Bugtis, who are known for crossing the Indus through boats and kidnapping people for ransom.

Cars and motorcycles hijacked from the district are also driven to Dera Bugti via Guddu and Kashmor.

The injured — Allah Ditta (12) and Qasim (40) were taken to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital, RYK, where their condition was stated to be serious.

SUPPLY TO NWFP: The NWFP manufacturing sector suffered heavily due to suspension of gas supply on Tuesday, Peshawar Bureau adds.

In most of the cases gas supply to industrial units was completely suspended, while in some instances industrial concerns continue to receive gas with low pressure.

Official sources said between 70 and 80 industrial units got their gas supply suspended either completely or partially in the area falling under the jurisdiction of SNGPL’s Peshawar region. Gas supply to industrial units in Hazara region was also disrupted.