DADU, June 23: One tower of the 500Kv main extra high voltage transmission line was destroyed and another was partially damaged by massive blasts
, suspected to have been caused by four bombs planted by terrorists near the village of Taga.
Power supply was suspended to different parts of the country from the main Guddu-Dadu section circuit-line early Wednesday morning. It is learnt that the tower No. 698 collapsed and tower No. 691 was partially damaged as a result of the explosion.
Wapda, through a parallel system of high-transmission Guddu- Dadu line on section-II restored power supply to several areas. Two teams of Wapda engineers led by shift-incharge of the 500 Kv grid station, Dadu, Mr Asif Hussain Janwari, and the executive engineer of the high-transmission line, Guddu-Dadu, supervised the repair work.
Law-enforcement personnel and bomb disposal squad visited the area and collected parts of the bombs. Mr Janwari said that Wapda was suffering a loss of about Rs10 million an hour due to the suspension of power supply through the line.
He said that the towers would be rebuilt in a week and supply would be fully restored. A hitherto unknown 'Sindh National Liberation Movement' in a fax message to Dawn on Wednesday evening owned responsibility for the blasts.
The statement signed by one Ghulam Hussain Chandio, who claimed to be the commander of the movement, said that Wednesday's action was 'just the beginning' of a series of such actions planned by his organisation.
Our Staff Reporter adds from Lahore: The blasts will seriously affect power supply and there may be load-shedding in several parts of interior Sindh. However, Wapda officials said in Lahore they hoped to carry out repairs soon and avoid load-shedding.
Power to Sindh and Balochistan is supplied from Guddu through two 500kv transmission lines. With the collapse of one tower and damage to the other, power supply capability through the 500kv line has been reduced by 50 per cent and now there is only one line linking Sindh to the national grid.
"It is a clear case of sabotage," Wapda member (power) Anwer Khalid said. "These lines have separate routes and both were hit at the same time which indicates a highly technical and planned sabotage." He said that the assailants had planted explosives under the four legs of both the towers for 'maximum impact'.
