QUETTA, Feb 14: Gas supply to Loti gas plant was suspended after another pipeline was damaged by rocket fire on Tuesday. Personnel of law-enforcement agencies are reported to have defused eight landmines planted on the Sui Road and in the Kahan area. They also arrested three people, official sources said. The security forces also foiled an attempt to blow up a high-tension power transmission tower in the Barkhan area.

Sources said that rockets fired in the Loti gas field area damaged the pipeline supplying gas to the purification plant from well No16. “The gas supply to the plant has been suspended from the gas well,” DCO of Dera Bugti Abdul Samad Lasi said. The closure of the plant could not be ruled out because of reduction in gas pressure.

He said that the gas supply to different areas of the country from the Loti gas plant could also be affected if the damaged pipelines were not repaired immediately. In another rocket attack, a water tanker was destroyed in the Pir Koh gas field area.

Meanwhile, tribesmen are reported to have fired on least 12 rockets at the FC fort in Dera Bugti, damaging the fort’s walls while two rockets landed near the FC post in the Kahan area. No casualty was reported in the attacks.

According another report, security forces arrested a man in the Barkhan area as he was planting an explosive device near a high-tension powr transmission tower.

In Loralai, the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) arrested two persons and recovered huge quantities of illegal arms and ammunition.