DADU, Oct 7: A 30-foot section of an 18-inch-dia main pipeline supplying gas to Karachi from Sui was ripped up after a loud explosion at the Ghulam Mohammad Khoso village, 20 kilometres from Sehwan town, at 6am on Monday.

The explosion and the resulting fire which damaged a nearby mosque and four houses in the village and caused injuries to nine villagers, was quickly declared an act of terrorism by an official of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) but police officials preferred not to jump to conclusions without getting the bomb disposal squad’s report.

Supply of gas to Sehwan, Bubak, Arazi, Aktar, Bhan Syedabad and Talti towns was suspended after the explosion in the Indus right bank pipeline (IRBPL) and the gas pressure dropped in several towns of Dadu and Jamshoro districts.

Two teams of transmission and distribution sections of the SSGC arrived at the blast site soon after the explosion and started repairing the damaged pipeline.

The regional manager of the SSGC’s Hyderabad region, Rasheed Khanzada, told Dawn the explosion of main Sui-Karachi supply line was certainly a terrorism activity. The blast had caused 20 to 30 feet deep ditch, he said.

He said that two teams of engineers were working on the pipeline and it would hopefully be ready by the night. Another pipeline was running parallel to the IRBPL but it remained safe in the blast, he said.

Sehwan ASP Tarique Walayat preferred not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the blast and said that a bomb disposal squad team had collected ruptured pieces of the pipeline and other material from the blast site. They would be in a better position to confirm whether or not the blast was an act of terrorism after getting the BSD report, he said.

A villager, Ghulam Akbar Khoso, who suffered injuries in the explosion told journalists at the Sehwan taluka hospital that he was sleeping at home when the blast suddenly jolted him out of sleep and he saw the house round him on fire. His neighbours rescued him and brought him to hospital, he said.

Another injured, Khadim Hussain, said that no one was nigh when the explosion set his house on fire. He and three members of his family were trapped inside for about 10 minutes before other villagers managed to drag them out to safety, he said.

The injured were identified as Ghulam Akbar Khoso, 25, Khadim Hussain Khoso, 28, Zahidan, 13, Soni, 22, Sahiban, 60, Gul Pari, 35, Noor Jahan, 25, Janat, 60, and two-year-old Rozina. All the injured were admitted to taluka hospital.

Sehwan Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Mehboob who arrived in the village along with a team of officials said the administration would provide all required assistance to the affected villagers. He said that mukhtirakar of Sehwan had been directed to conduct a survey of all damaged houses in the village.