Pakistan was on Sunday plunged into darkness due to a massive power failure apparently triggered by a militant attack on a major power line, causing hardship to millions of people across the country, including capital Islamabad.
The power failure plunged about 80 per cent country into darkness, the fourth major breakdown of the system within the past one month.
Initially television channels reported that militants had disrupted the Guddu transmission line in the troubled Baluchistan province’s Nasirabad district.
But, Deputy Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, later denied the breakdown was due to any terrorist activity.
He said the breakdown occurred after a key power transmission line broke down in Baluchistan one hour after midnight on Saturday.
However, Sarbaz Baluch, who claimed to be a spokesman of the Baluch Republican Army, claimed that the defunct militant group had carried out the bombing of two 220 KV transmission lines in Notal area of Naseerabad district.
Officials said that Saturday’s breakdown resulted in many urban areas like Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Islamabad and Peshawar plunging into darkness with hundreds of villages and small towns in all four provinces also affected.
“Repair work to restore the transmission line has nearly been completed and power has been restored to most parts of the country,” Mr. Sher Ali said.
