MULTAN, July 6: One of the three pipelines supplying gas to Punjab and the NWFP from Balochistan and Sindh was damaged reportedly by a blast on Tuesday morning. The blast occurred near the village of Nandey Lal in Uch Sharif, about 110km from here.

The pipeline caught fire and, according to eyewitnesses, flames could be seen from places several kilometres away. The fire in the 24-inch diameter pipeline also damaged an adjacent pipeline of 18 inches diameter. The three pipes pass underground from the area.

Gas supply to industrial and domestic consumers in Punjab remained mostly unaffected, apparently because gas supply to thermal power stations in the southern region of the province was suspended.

Sources in the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited said the power stations had been asked to switch over to furnace oil till the 90-foot damaged portion of the pipeline was repaired.

Later, a spokesman of the company said that gas supply to two of the five thermal power stations had been partially restored by the afternoon. He said the damaged pipeline would be commissioned soon.

Talking to Dawn, SNGPL Managing Director Rasheed Lone said he would not rule out sabotage, adding that the blast might be linked to a series of recent attacks on gas pipelines.

Bahawalpur District Police Officer Arif Nawaz said a case had been registered by the Uch police on the report of an SNGPL official. He said tat although explosives experts after initial examination of the pipeline, did not think that the incident was an act of sabotage, SNGPL officials engaged in the repair work were insisting that it was nothing but a 'terrorist attack'.