Sunday, June 04, 2006

2 gaslines, two pylons blown up

www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp

QUETTA: Two gas pipelines were blown up at Pir Koh and Pathar Nala while 11 rockets were fired on security check-posts in Balochistan on Saturday.

Suspected militants blew up two pipelines of 16-inch diameter, which suspended gas supply to a gas field and plant. Security forces defused two landmines planted along the gas pipelines. Militants also fired 11 rockets on security check-posts in Sangsela, Chashma, Gori Nala and Kohlu. No loss of life was reported.

Meanwhile, suspected militants blew up two electricity pylons of 32 kilowatts in Barkhan, suspending power supply to Kohlu. staff report

Chinese engineer electrocuted: A Chinese engineer was electrocuted and two others, including a Pakistani, suffered injuries in Lasbela district on Saturday.

Wu Booding, who was working in Dodar locality of the Kanaraj area in Lasbela, died of an electric shock while his colleague, Wu Dashin, and a Pakistani engineer, Noor Ali, suffered severe injuries. Ghulam Haider Baloch, the district police officer, told Daily Times that both the injured were shifted to a Karachi hospital by a helicopter.

Hub SHO gunned down: Unidentified armed men gunned down Hub SHO Muhammad Hayat Baloch on Saturday night. Police sources told Daily Times that Baloch was on patrol when the assailants shot him at Bab-e-Balochistan Chowk near Jumma Hotel in the industrial city of Hub. He was shifted to Murshid Hospital in Karachi where he died. Sources said the assailants were riding a bike. staff report

DERA BUGTI: Two gas pipelines were blown up at Peer Koh and Pathar Nala while 11 rockets were also fired on security forces check posts here Saturday.

According to the available reports, unknown miscreants blew up two pipelines of 16 inch diameter, which suspended the gas supply to gas field and the plant. PPL has started the repair work. Meanwhile, at Pir Koh, security forces have defused two landmines after recovering two landmines planted along with gas pipelines by saboteurs.

Unidentified miscreants also fired 11 rockets on the check posts of security forces in Sangsela, Chashma, Gori Nala and Kohlu which exploded in close areas. The armed men after retaliation from security forces fled away but no loss of life was reported.


Policeman killed in tribal area blast

Reuters
www.gulfnews.com/world/Pakistan/10044580.html

Khar: A bomb exploded as Pakistani police were investigating it in a trouble-plagued region on the border with Afghanistan, killing one policeman and wounding three, a government official said on Saturday.

Violence in the Bajaur tribal region has intensified this year since a US air strike on a suspected militant gathering in January killed more than 20 people, most of them civilians.

Police were on patrol late on Friday when they spotted something suspicious on a road, said the region's top government official, political agent Mohammad Fahim Khan Wazir.

A blast set off by remote-control killed the policeman and wounded three colleagues as they approached to investigate, he said. Seven people were detained for questioning.

Pakistani forces have been trying to root out the militants who fled to the lawless border region after US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes, bomb attacks and ambushes on security forces.

As well as the militants on the Afghan border, Pakistani forces are also battling autonomy-seeking rebels in the province of Balochistan, also on the Afghan border, hundreds of kilometres to the southwest.

Militants in Balochistan, who security officials say have no links to the Islamist fighters elsewhere on the border, blew up two gas pipelines yesterday, police said.

Nationalists in Baluchistan province have been demanding greater benefits from gas and other resources for decades.

Their low-level insurgency has intensified this year and Pakistan accuses old rival India of meddling. Militants blew up to 40cm pipelines supplying gas from the Pir Koh gas field to the town of Sui, where the main production plant for Pakistan's largest gas field is located.

A gas company official said consumer supplies would not be affected as gas from elsewhere would make up for the losses from Pir Koh



Sunday, June 04, 2006

Dubai-based company will manage Gwadar

www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp
By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousaf on Saturday announced that the management of Gwadar Port had been handed over to the Dubai-based Port-World with five of its borders being opened for commercial and travel purposes.

“Five borders of the port have been opened on the Iranian side for travel and commercial purposes,” Yousaf told reporters at the CM’s Chamber. He did not elaborate on the deal.

The chief minister said that the Balochistan situation was being normalised quickly as “tensions have considerably eased in Marri and Bugti areas”. He said the government had lost Rs 1.5 billion because of attacks on gas pipelines in the province.

“The situation in Kohlu is returning to normalcy while Akbar Khan Bugti still has full control over his area. He is a respected elderly man. We hope he will help bring the law and order under control in his area too,” he said. Asked about a tussle between the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim League in Balochistan, the chief minister said that the MMA’s reservations would be addressed soon. He rejected the impression that the Balochistan government was on the verge of a collapse.

Yousaf said that President Pervez Musharraf had been very kind to Balochistan since he came to power in 1999. He said the provincial budget would be announced on June 28.


‘Balochistan OD touches Rs15bn’

www.dawn.com/2006/06/04/top5.htm

By Our Correspondent

QUETTA, June 3: Balochistan’s overdraft stands at Rs15 billion and the province has paid over Rs262.7 million as interest on loan from the State Bank, says provincial Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah.

The minister told members of the Balochistan Assembly that the federal government had not allowed Balochistan’s suggestion, which had called for allowing acquisition of loans from the open market at lower interest rates. He said that the proposal had been floated during the meeting of the National Finance Commission.

Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar criticised after the finance minister said that the provincial government had obtained Rs19 billion in loans in the 1990s and paid Rs39 billion as interest and still needed to pay Rs14 billion more.

He termed it unfortunate that the provincial government that was returning loans at high rate interest had been unable to get Rs9 billion in dues from the Sindh government in connection with Hub water in addition to billions of rupees in gas arrears that were outstanding against the federal government.

The finance minister said that the provincial government was facing a financial crisis and said it had to obtain loan from the Asian Development Bank to repay the federal government loan.

Members of opposition Kachkol Ali and Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal criticised the government and said that it was forced to run its affairs on loans while the federal government got Rs78 billion annually in revenue from Sui gas fields.

The speaker told the finance minister to brief legislators so that Balochistan’s financial problems could be taken up with the quarters concerned in Islamabad.

Later, the speaker referred the Societies registration (Balochistan amended) bill 2006 to the standing committee for review.

The home minister placed the accounts report for 2003-04 and audit report for financial receipts for 2003-04 in place of the finance minister.

The session was adjourned till Tuesday