QUETTA, Jan 10: At least two people, including a woman, were killed and seven others injured, two of them seriously, in heavy gunfire between armed men and law-enforcement personnel in Sui on Monday.

The heavy fighting that started at 11:30pm on Sunday night continued till 10am on Monday. "Hundreds of rockets and mortar shells were fired during 11 hours of heavy gun battle," sources in Sui told Dawn by telephone, and added that the injured also included a soldier of the levy force who received bullet injuries.

"Though rocket and mortar shell firing stopped in the morning, firing with light weapons continued throughout the day in Sui," official sources said, and added that electricity and water supply was suspended as electricity poles, cables and water supply lines were hit by rockets.

Heavy fighting erupted late night when armed men launched an attack on the positions of Frontier Corps and Defence Security Guards (DSG) in the Sui area. The security forces retaliated and targeted the positions of the armed men with rockets and mortar shells, sources said.

"The people of Sui could not sleep the whole night as the township was rocking with the heavy explosions of rockets and mortar shells," a police officer said while confirming two deaths in the gun battle.

A large number of rockets and mortar shells landed and exploded in different residential colonies damaging many houses and killing animals in large numbers. "Dozens of houses and shops were damaged in different residential colonies," an officer of the local administration confirmed, and said that the administration was collecting detailed information.

The PPL also claimed heavy losses inside its fenced area where several rockets and mortar shells landed and exploded. The house of the acting manager was hit by a rocket.

The junior executive mess and a Wapda installation plant were also hit setting both on fire. The electricity supply was also disrupted in the gas field, a PPL spokesman said.

All shops and bazaars remained closed for the fourth consecutive day due to firing and exchange of rockets between armed men and law-enforcement personnel, while the town of Sui and its gas field was cut off from the rest of the country as a result of continuous fighting.

The people were facing great difficulties as both those injured in the rocket explosions as well as the sick could not be taken to hospitals. No transport was available in Sui for reaching safer places.

The woman killed in the firing was identified as Mrs Sabzo while the man, a resident of the NWFP, was identified as Asmatullah Wazir. He had been running a provision store in Bugti Colony. He was killed in the crossfire while he was headed towards his store in the morning.

However, no gas pipeline or other installation was damaged in the firing, the acting manager of PPL Sui Plant, Mr. Perveiz, told local reporters in Sui on Monday. The gas supply from Sui for the rest of the country continued without any disruptions, while the pipeline that had been damaged in the fighting on Friday and Saturday nights was repaired and the gas supply to the Guddo Thermal Power Plant was restored.

Meanwhile, the elders of the Bugti tribe, including Wadera Qamaruddin (Chief of Kalpar), Wadera Ali Bakhsh Mondrani and Wadera Ali Mohammad, strongly condemned the firing of rockets and mortar shells on the residential areas of Sui as a result of which some people were killed and many injured.

Speaking at a press conference in Sui on Monday, they said that the personnel of Frontier Corps and Defence Security Guards were targeting civilian settlements by firing rockets and mortar shells. "At least eight people have been killed so far and around 28 injured during the last three days due to firing rockets on the residential areas of Sui," they said.

They said that people suffered losses worth millions of rupees during the last three days as dozens of houses and vehicles had been destroyed and many animals had been killed in the rocket explosions.

They said that the security forces had sealed Sui town in its entirety and had imposed an unannounced curfew that was creating problems for the people, including not being able to take the injured to hospitals of other cities for treatment. They alleged that the PPL doctors were not treating the relatives of the labourers working with the company.

The Bugti elders also criticized the government for not arresting the officials of the DSG who were involved in criminally assaulting a lady doctor. They demanded that the accused should be arrested without further delay.