QUETTA, Aug 10: Power supply to a vast area of the Kohlu district was suspended after two pylons were blown up on Friday. Police sources said high explosives placed around the pylons carrying 132KV transmission line went off early in the morning, suspending power supply to most parts of the district.
Officials of the Quetta Electric Supply Company said work to replace the damaged pylons would be started soon after security clearance. Restoration of power supply, they said, would take at least a week.
A telephone tower was recently blown up in Kohlu and hundreds of telephone lines in the area are out of order.
SUSPECT HELD: Security personnel arrested on Friday an Al Qaeda suspect in Taftan, a small town at the border with Iran.
Officials said that the suspect was an Iraqi national and identified him as Qasim Hameed Yasin. He was arrested after he crossed into the country from Iran through an infrequent route. His body search yielded a large amount of cash in foreign currency.
The officials said that he had been handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation. “He could turn out to be an Al Qaeda man. We are questioning him.”
They said that two days ago, three Turkish nationals had been arrested from an area near Taftan.
