LAHORE, Jan 29: The Punjab government on Wednesday deployed the Punjab Rangers to protect Sui-Guddu gas pipelines and to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas to upcountry.

Officials of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited told Dawn that 350 members of the Punjab Rangers had been deployed along the 21-kilometre gas pipeline falling within the Punjab territory. The Rangers men have established pickets on all important points and started patrolling the area. The SNGPL has promised to provide logistical support to them.

The NWFP government has deployed 150 members the Frontier Constabulary to patrol the 11-kilometre part of the gas pipeline falling in the jurisdiction of the NWFP. It was still to establish security pickets when this report was filed last night.

The Sindh government has not yet deployed paramilitary forces to protect and patrol the five-kilometre part of the gas pipeline. But it has promised to deploy the forces at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the SNGPL has decided to restore all 1300 industrial connections snapped after the latest blast. It had reconnected around 56 per cent connections by 8pm on Tuesday night and hoped to restore the rest by late Wednesday night.

The total supply in the SNGPL system crossed the demand by 400 million cubic feet on Wednesday; it had 1000 mcf gas against the consumption of 600mcf only. The surplus was largely because of disconnected industrial connections and fair weather.