Pakistani separatists blow up 3 gas pipelines, cutting supplies to millions of households

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani officials say separatists from the country's southwestern province have blown up three gas pipelines, cutting supplies to millions of households.

The head of Sui Northern Gas, Arif Hameed, said on Monday that the pipelines running through central Pakistan in Rahim Yar Khan district will take at least two days to fix.

The separatist group, Baluch Republican Army, has claimed responsibility. They are based in the southwestern Baluchistan province that borders the district.

The group's spokesman Sarbaz Baluch says the late Sunday attack was in response to the discovery earlier of dead bodies of Baluch activists in Baluchistan.

Baluch separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency for years against the Pakistani government.

Hameed also says that the gas supplies to Pakistan's most prosperous province of Punjab have been badly affected.