KARACHI, Jan 16: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has stopped supplies to several major industrial units after its main plant was damaged in attacks by tribesmen in the south western province of Balochistan , officials said on Sunday.

Disruption to supplies from the Sui gas plant began on Tuesday when rockets damaged a purification plant and have already affected millions of domestic consumers. "We have cut supplies to the major power and fertiliser plants," said Inayatullah Ismail, spokesman for the Sui Southern Gas pipelines.

He said pressure in pipelines to the southern province of Sindh had dropped considerably, affecting millions of households. "We have now devised a strategy to meet such shortages by stopping supplies to major plants," he said.

Supplies to a major power plant in Karachi and some fertiliser plants have been cut and they have converted to using furnace oil, he said. Managing Director Rashid Lone told the AFP in Lahore on Sunday that supplies may be restored completely in the next few days.

The company is suffering a loss of Rs58.5 million (about one million dollars) daily due to suspension of supplies, company officials said. The trouble in Sui erupted after a woman doctor at the company hospital was allegedly gang-raped by security men early this month.

Angry tribesman fired rockets at the gas complex for several days in clashes which left eight people dead. A low-level uprising has been brewing for years in the region. Similar attacks on the Sui gas fields two years ago caused winter gas shortages for millions of Pakistanis.

The tribesmen have been demanding more royalties and better jobs from the gas field but their leaders say the latest attacks were purely in revenge for the alleged rape.

More than 1,000 paramilitary troops have secured the facility and searched nearby homes for weapons but no arrests have been reported, local officials said. A leading Baloch tribal leader, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, said he would not negotiate with the authorities unless those responsible for the alleged rape are arrested.

"We'll fight it out if the government launches any operation against us," Mengal told a press conference. "A woman who belongs to Sindh is raped on our homeland, which we'll not tolerate and will struggle till the criminals involved in the rape are punished," he said.