QUETTA, Jan 16: Militants dynamited a gas pipeline in the Loti gas field on Sunday and fired two rockets at the Uch power plant in Dera Murad Jamali on Saturday night.

Sources said the pipeline connecting a gas well with a purification plant was blown up in the early hours of Sunday.

“The explosion destroyed a large portion of the eight-inch-diameter pipeline, affecting gas supply to the plant from the Loti field,” the sources added.

They said the authorities managed to save another pipeline by defusing an explosive device planted under it.

The sources said that rockets fired from a long distance exploded close to the Uch power plant. “The gas-based power plant remained safe and no casualty was reported in the attack,” a senior official of Nasirabad district administration said.

Meanwhile, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has enhanced the supply of natural gas to Karachi, causing a shortage of gas in Balochistan.

Most of the consumers in Balochistan have been complaining of low gas pressure, which is causing problems for them in the severe cold weather.

The supply of gas to nine districts of the province was disrupted several days ago because of an attack on main pipelines in the Loti gas field, the consumers pointed out.

“These pipelines were repaired only yesterday. But now we are getting gas at extremely low pressures because of diversion of gas to Karachi,” a housewife told Dawn.

“This is unfair, very unfair,” she said.