ByREUTERS
Updated:

A natural gas pipeline was blown up in southern Pakistan on Monday, suspending supply to several districts, an official said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

An 18-inch-diameter main gas supply pipeline was blown up by unknown people on the outskirts of Quetta city, the capital of restive Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, a spokesman for Sui Southern Gas Company said.

It suspended gas supply to several parts of the city and at least five more districts, he said.

File Photo: Gas pipes are seen during the launching ceremony of construction work of the TAPI project on the Afghan section of a natural gas pipeline that will link Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, near the town of Serhetabat, Turkmenistan February 23, 2018.
File Photo: Gas pipes are seen during the launching ceremony of construction work of the TAPI project on the Afghan section of a natural gas pipeline that will link Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, near the town of Serhetabat, Turkmenistan February 23, 2018. (credit: REUTERS/Marat Gurt)

Engineers working to repair pipeline

Separatist insurgents and Islamist militants operate in the region.

The separatists have long been fighting against the state, targeting the government and military, and blame the central government in Islamabad for depriving the locals of what they say is their due share in the region's mineral-rich resources.

Engineers were working to repair the pipeline, the SSGC spokesman said.