QUETTA, Jan 29: The Uch power plant was shut down while operations of the Loti gas purification plant was affected when significant portions of the pipelines supplying gas to the two units were blown up by outlaws in separate incidents on Sunday.

It is the third time in a month that the pipeline to the Uch plant has been blown up in the Nasirabad district.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting erupted between security forces and tribesmen in the Pirkoh gas field area.

Police sources in Dera Murad Jamali said that outlaws planted explosives by the 24-inch diameter pipeline in Chattar tehsil and blew up a considerable portion of the pipeline. The pipeline caught fire. However, the blaze was brought under control by switching off the supply to the pipeline from the gas filed.

“The 586mw-capacity power plant owned by British and US companies was closed at about 11pm,” official sources said. As a result, power supply to some areas of Sibi and Nasirabad towns was suspended.

The sources said that the repair of the pipeline would be undertaken on Monday which would take at least two days.

Referring to the other incident occurring at a place about 40km from Dera Bugti, the sources said: “A portion of the pipeline, measuring around 18 feet and connecting the Loti purification plant to well No 6, was destroyed in the explosion.”

The electricity supply to the Loti township and adjoining areas was stopped as gas supply to the local power plant was suspended, the sources said.

“Militants blew up a gas pipeline with a powerful device in the early hours of the day,” Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Samad Lasi said.

“Armed tribesmen attacked the officers Mess and the Pirkoh gas field with heavy weapons late night,” he said. Rockets and mortar shells firing by the armed tribesmen landed in different areas. “Casualties cannot be ruled out in the fighting, but we have no details,” he said.

Engineers of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation, he said, had started repairing the pipeline and the supply was expected to be restored by Monday evening.

A Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) spokesman said the pipeline had been hit during firing by security forces on Saturday night. Eight Bugti tribesmen were injured, he added.

“The gas pipeline was destroyed in heavy shelling targeted by FC men on villages of Bugti tribesmen,” JWP Secretary-General Agha Shahid Bugti said, adding that several houses were damaged.

He said that through such attacks security forces wanted to get the area around the Loti gas plant vacated as they had done in Sui.

Besides, a water supply pipeline destroyed two days ago in a missile attack could not be repaired because of landmines in the area, sources said. The Frontier Corps personnel were reportedly trying to clean up the area.

ROCKET ATTACK: Meanwhile, Quetta was rocked when a rocket exploded in the house of a senior official of the Balochistan government in the cantonment area. Police said the rocket fired from an unknown place hit the rooftop of the house of Captain (retd) Niaz Mohammad Jaffar. The roof and walls were damaged while windowpanes of nearby houses were smashed.