Explosions derail nine carriages

Railways official confirms banned group’s pamphlet found from site

HYDERABAD: Nine carriages of a Punjab-bound freight train were derailed and about a foot-long part of the track was ripped up after two explosions on a railway track near Murid Sipyo railway crossing in Tando Jam on Monday.

The derailment damaged around 50 metres of the track while no casualty has yet been reported.

Bomb disposal squad incharge Ramzan Panhwar informed that between 400 and 500 grammes of explosives were used for the explosions, caused by IEDs.

Hyderabad Railways superintendent Shamsuddin Solangi confirmed that nine carriages of the freight train, carrying coal, were derailed.

Meanwhile, the train driver told journalists that two successive blasts occurred at the track. “After the first explosion, I tried to stop the train, but by that time the second blast happened and the bogies derailed,” he said.

Terrorism

“It’s an act of terrorism,” said Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind. According to him, the terrorists wanted to damage the train. No group has so far claimed responsibility.

However, Karachi-based Railways SP Robin Yameen confirmed that a pamphlet of the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army (SDLA) was found near the site. SDLA is the armed wing of banned nationalist outfit Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, accused in the past of carrying out similar attacks.

An FIR will soon be registered at the Railways police station in Hyderabad, he added.

Separate collisions

Three other trains met separate accidents in Hyderabad on Monday. Two cargo trains collided at the signal of Pathan Goth and Khaskheli Mohalla in Latifabad.

The superintendent said the incident happened as the driver of one iof the trains failed to notice the red signal.

The engine of one train smashed into the guard’s cabin of the other.

The engine driver’s, Jamil Akhtar, and fireman Mushtaq Ali were injured.

The accident disrupted railway traffic for over four hours. In another accident, a bogie of Rawalpindi-bound Pakistan Express derailed in Gurajti Para shortly after it left the Hyderabad Railway Station.

Authorities said the accident occurred while the train was changing tracks.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2016.