Railway bomb: Blast forces train off the tracks

Passengers protest as an explosion delays service for 17 hours.

SUKKUR:

Rail traffic resumed on Thursday afternoon after a bomb blast on the railway tracks cut it off on Wednesday night.

The Bolan Mail was on its way to Karachi from Quetta when the main engine and four coaches were derailed after a bomb went off on the train tracks at the Sindh-Balochistan border at the Dera Allah Yar-Jacobabad section.

The train was travelling at a very slow speed, which prevented it from overturning on impact. Though no one was hurt, the passengers left the train and boarded passenger buses and coaches to Karachi.

On Thursday morning, the Sukkur Railway Control summoned relief trains from Sibi and Rohri and the repair work began. An official said that over 150 feet of the track had to be replaced. The bomb disposal squad’s Imam Din Jagirani of Larkana told The Express Tribune that the device weighed one kilogramme and was a remote-controlled bomb of local origin.

The Sukkur railway division superintendent, Roshan Ali Mangi, explained that if the train had not run off the tracks, the damage caused by the blast alone could have been repaired in a few hours. However, the derailment had left a long portion damaged and it took more than 17 hours to restore the track.

Passengers of the Quetta-bound Jaffer Express protested at the Jacobabad railway station and demanded reimbursement for their tickets after they were informed that it would take some hours to restore the track. They ransacked the railway offices but some of them were stopped by the other protesters from turning more violent.

The Jacobabad railway station master, Mohammad Sharif, assured the protesters that the train was scheduled to leave within an hour. He told the passengers that they could continue to protest as long as they did not damage property. The service was restored by 2:30 pm, after which both the trains, Bolan Mail and Jaffer Express, left for their destinations.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2011.