QUETTA, Jan 8: Unidentified persons blew up a gas pipeline in the Sui area by firing rockets late on Saturday night. The conduit, which supplied gas to Wapda for the Guddo Thermal Power Plant, caught fire as a result.

"The gas supply was disrupted to the power plant as engineers switched off supply from the main plant to control the blaze," sources in the Sui area told Dawn over telephone.

No official of Pakistan Petroleum Limited was available to offer comment on the latest situation.

According to the sources, unknown armed men started firing rockets in the sensitive area at around 9pm and continued to do so until 11pm.

The personnel of the Frontier Corps and Defence Security Guards returned fire. Dozens of rockets and mortal shells were lobbed during the exchange, the sources said.

"A rocket hit one of the gas pipelines inside the fenced area of PPL purification plant," the sources said. However, the fire which the pipeline had caught had been extinguished, they said.

Reports reaching here suggested that some rockets also exploded close to the main pipeline supplying gas to Sindh and Punjab but remained safe. Official sources did not confirm these reports.

"So far we have received no report of any casualty in the crossfire," a senior officer of the Sui administration told this correspondent by telephone.

It may be mentioned that unknown armed men and the law-enforcing agencies had also exchanged fire for two hours on Friday night which resulted in the killing of two men and injuries to six others.