30 January 2005	Sunday	19 Zilhaj 1425

QUETTA, Jan 29: Unknown miscreants on Saturday night damaged three power transmission towers in Chatter area of Nasirabad district, suspending the supply to major part of Balochistan for 80 minutes.

Police officials in Dera Murad Jamali told Dawn on telephone that three towers had been damaged in subversive acts, and the Balochistan Liberation Army, talking to newsmen on a satellite phone, claimed the responsibility.

But Qesco attributed the outage to a technical fault.

The breakdown affected the area from Zhob to Khuzdar and Chaman to Sibi, Quetta. But Nasirabad, Lasbela, Makran coastal belt, Barkhan did not face the disruption.

A spokesman for Qesco told Dawn that a technical fault had developed on Gudu-Sibi and Gudu-Uch 220kV transmission line and the supply remained suspended from 7:20pm to 8:40pm. After maintenance work on Gudu-Sibi 220kV line, the electricity to Sibi-Quetta section was restored.

The spokesman said repair of Gudu-Uch line was in progress and soon the power supply would be restored to the areas concerned.

He ruled out any attack on the supply lines, saying that if the line had been targeted, the supply could not have been restored in 80 minutes.

But the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army talking to newsmen on a satellite telephone claimed the responsibility for hitting the transmission line. But they failed when a journalist asked to identify the site targeted.

NATIONALISTS: Talking to a group of newsmen on satellite telephone from an unknown location, MPA Nawabzada Balaach Marri said ruler's approach had forced Balochs to counter state violence.

He said that when the government had contacted Nawab Bugti and Sardar Mengal, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri had stated that the rulers were not sincere to recognize the national rights of Balochs.

Time, he said, had proved that his father's perception was correct as Sardar Mengal had disassociated from the negotiation process whereas Nawab Bugti after the Sui incident of Jan 7 had said that talks process was dead.

Nawab Marri said that keeping in view the arrogant behaviour of the rulers, no Baloch could oppose the struggle of the Balochistan Liberation Army.

He lauded the Muttahida and also thanked Sindhi nationalists for their support to Baloch cause.