PESHAWAR, March 19: Suspected militants blew up a transmission line, disrupting power supply to major parts of the city early on Thursday morning.

A police official said powerful explosives packed in plastic bottles had been planted beneath four pylons of the 500 KV Sheikh Mohammadi Peshawar-Tarbela Transmission line at Mirza Village in Ormar.

Three of the pillars were blown up a little after about 5am. The bomb disposal squad defused the explosives placed under the fourth pillar.

The blasts disrupted supply to grid stations providing power to Peshawar University and industrial area. Supplies to the Rehman Baba and Matni grid stations were also severely affected.

Police said they had heard three blasts, but because of darkness they could not go to the ‘dangerous’ area. “We avoided going to the area immediately after the blasts because an encounter with criminals had taken place in the locality a few days ago.”

A bomb disposal squad official told Dawn that the explosives had been attached to the pylons by digging out concrete.

He said the incident was similar to the blowing up of a 500-KV tower at Shaikh Mohammadi (Badbher) on Aug 8 and again on Nov 6 last year.

A Pesco spokesman said technical staff of Wapda had started repairing the transmission line.

He said the affected areas would get electricity through alternative sources, but complete restoration would take some time. ‘Load management’ would be carried out in areas served by the grid stations because alternative sources couldn’t bear heavy load, he added.
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