QUETTA, March 22: Miscreants blew up the main gas pipeline near Dhadar, about 140km from here on Tuesday night, disrupting gas supply from Shikarpur to many areas of Balochistan. Sources said the miscreants had placed a high explosive device along the pipeline which went off with a big bang. Fortunately, the pipeline could not catch fire.

“The blast destroyed four feet long piece of the pipeline,” Levies Director Khair Mohammad Jamali told Dawn. He said a bomb was planted under the pipeline that went off at around 10.50pm. Soon after the explosion, the Sui Southern Gas Company officials rushed to the blast site and stopped supply from Shikarpur. Quetta would receive gas supply through an alternative pipeline.

However, supply to some other areas of the province would be affected. Meanwhile, unknown saboteurs in Turbat blew up an office of the Pakistan Muslim League on Tuesday night. According to reports, the building of the PML-Q district office was completely destroyed in the blast.

“No body was in the office when the bomb exploded,” police said and added that no causality was reported. The blast was so powerful that it smashed windowpanes of the Turbat Press Club and other buildings in the area.