Authorities shut a natural gas plant and about 2,000 paramilitary forces took over its control after renegade tribesmen fired hundreds of rockets, blowing up a gas pipeline in southwestern Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday.
| Those aren't renegades, those're Bugtis! |
 The soldiers were dispatched to control the situation Tuesday after armed tribesmen stormed the gas plant in Sui, 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast of Quetta, and "started damaging it," said Abdul Samad Lasi, a senior government official. He said about 2,000 soldiers evicted the attackers, took control of the gas plant and other facilities. "The situation is now under control at least as much as anything in Pakiwakiland can be, and more paramilitary forces are expected to arrive in Sui today," he said. But, authorities had to shut a gas plant and suspend supplies to five industrial units because of the damage caused to a pipeline, said Abdur Rasheed Lone, an official with the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd., which operates the Sui gas field. He hoped that the supplies would be restored within the next 24 hours. Rocket attacks against gas fields are common in Baluchistan province of which Quetta is the capital. But, the latest clashes between a little-known Baluchistan Liberation Force nationalist group and the security forces began last week after a female doctor was allegedly gang-raped by three men at a hospital owned by a state-run gas company. The group has said the attack against the doctor was against their traditions.
| Gang-rape is against our traditions, too, but we didn't shut down a pipeline. |
The surge in attacks against gas facilities also came hours after Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in an interview with private Geo TV asked tribesmen to halt their activities. "Don't push us ... it is not 1970s, and this time you won't even know what has hit you," he said Tuesday, referring to a 1970s military crackdown on rebels in the region that left most of the separatists dead or captured.
| "Youse guys are gonna git it good!" |
"I warn them to stop targeting" the country's gas facilities, he said. But his threat seemed to have little effect.
The government has said the tribesmen target security forces and gas facilities to pressure it to get higher royalties from gas extracted from their territory. |