Quetta: Baluchistan's woes show no signs of abating almost two-and-a-half weeks after the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
On Monday, a major power crisis loomed before Pakistan's largest province as the power transmission line between capital Quetta and Sibi suffered extensive damage, leading to large and continuous spells of loadshedding in Baluchistan's ten districts.
Quetta Electric Supply Company (QUESCO) officials confirmed on Monday that a blast had taken place on the 220 KV power line near Aab Gum.
The officials claimed that some unknown persons had planted an explosive device to damage two pylons and two towers, which led to unrestricted tripping and had plunged vast areas of Quetta, Mastung, Qalat, Khuzdar, Kharan, Qila Abdullah, Pishin, Noshki into pitch darkness.
Though there were reports of a restoration of electricity, QESCO’s CEO Brigadier Tasadduq Hussain said that he still expected a power distribution shortfall of 350 megawatts a day, which would mean that people in the above mentioned areas could suffer between eight to ten hours of loadshedding every day for several days.
Brigadier Hussain said that QESCO immediately required Rs 1.05 million to replace the damaged pylons, and warned that till full power was not restored, the public sector undertaking could suffer a loss of Rs 300 million per day.
Monday's grim revelation came a day after 15 people, including a woman, were wounded by a powerful bomb blast outside a crowded restaurant on Quetta's busy Junction Chowk.
The time device was said to have been strapped to a bicycle that was parked outside the restaurant. Some of the injured are still said to be in a critical state at the local hospital. The explosion destroyed three vehicles, a motorcycle and windowpanes of nearby buildings.
Police said that most of the injured have been identified. The names of eleven of them were as follows: Ghazi Khan, Babu Murad, Hasti Khan, Nadir, Naseebullah, Muhammad Hanif, Raza Babar, Naimatullah, Noor Muhammad, Waleed, Aslam and Raza Muhammad.
Two of the injured were scavenger children.
According to the police, a case has been registered against the unknown miscreants.
Baluchistan Chief Minister Jam Yousuf has issued an appeal to the administration to keep a strict vigil on public places and to monitor activities of known and unknown miscreants in the wake of Nawab Bugti's tragic demise.
Leaders of various opposition parties, including the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, (ARD), the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), have warned the people that some of the hardline generals in the Pakistan Army are promoting conspiracies against the state.
Addressing a six-hour-long large public meeting under Lahore's MInar-e-Pakistan late on Sunday night to protest the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the opposition leaders appealed to people to beware of the 'anti-Punjab' and 'anti-Army' hatred that the Musharraf regime was spreading in the smaller provinces by using the Army against innocent civilians.
The absence of a provincial or ethnic identity, they said, was being used by General Musharraf and his "puppet politicians" to keep the sense of instability and insecurity in Baluchistan and other smaller provinces alive.
Military dictators like Pervez Musharraf, could only be stopped from oppressing the Baloch and the people of other provinces if there was unity and active support for resisting the conspiracies of the regime, said the leaders of the opposition parties.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif telephonically addressed the gathering for about 30-minutes and urged themnot to give Musharraf a chance to prolong his tenure.
"Pakistan is with the people of Baluchistan in their hour of distress, especially after the 'murder' of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti,"Sharif said, adding" that those trying to weaken the case of Punjab would not be spared."
"It is the moral duty of the people of Pakistan to snatch rifles from those who were using against the masses, as it is the people who have to pay the price of adventurism of the rulers," Sharif said.
He said by killing a patriot in Baluchistan, Musharraf had proved that he had nothing to do with the solidarity and sovereignty of Pakistan and just wanted to prolong his rule alone.
ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim urged Army commanders "to step down and take measures which were in favour of the country and its people."
"The people of Baluchistan are not alone in their hour of distress as the whole Pakistan is protesting against the killing of their leader," Fahim said.
ARD secretary-general Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said the 'murder' of Bugti was a part of a conspiracy that was hatched in 1971. The ARD meeting gave a clear message to their Baloch brethren that they were with them, he added.
MMA deputy secretary-general Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the opposition parties should announce formation of a grand alliance and from its platform and if the united opposition announced to resign, the MMA would resign from all the assemblies, including NWFP. He strongly condemned the killing of Bugti.
The meeting was attended by a host of Baloch opposition leaders and prominent personalities from other opposition parties.
They included Memoona Hashmi, Aitzaz Ahsan, Liaqat Baloch, BNM leader Abdul Hayee Baloch, PONM leader from Sindh Qamar Bhatti, PPP NWFP president Rahim Dad Baloch, Nawabzada Mansoor Ali Khan, Sardar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, Abdul Rauf Mengal and Tehmina Daultana to name a few.
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