DERA MURAD JAMALI: As many as 17 districts of Balochistan, including parts of Quetta, plunged into darkness after suspected militants blew up two pylons of a power transmission line in Chatter area of Nasirabad district.

Levies officials said that explosive material planted around the pylons was detonated in the wee hours of Saturday.

“With blasting of two pylons of 220kv supplying electricity to Balochistan from Guddu power plant, the supply to Quetta and 16 other districts was suspended,” a senior official of the National Transmission Dispatch Company said.

“Repair of pylons will be undertaken after security clearance,” he said.

A spokesman for the Quetta Electric Supplying Company said that power supply had been restored to Quetta city through alternative arrangements, but other areas of the district were still without power.

Meanwhile, Sarbaz Baloch, a spokesman for the banned Baloch Republican Army, calling from an unknown location informed media that his organisation had carried out the attack.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2015

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