The blasts caused only minor damage, which was swiftly repaired by engineers from the Pakistan Railways. The explosions and subsequent repair work led to a mere two-hour delay of traffic. The Khyber Mail Express, which was traveling to Karachi, was stopped at the Nawabshah railway station and the Sukkur Express, which was on its way to Sukkur, had to be stopped at the Kotri railway station.
One of the explosions occurred at about 6:40am near Sehrish Nagar, Qasimabad. About two and a half pounds of locally made explosives were used and around four feet of track was destroyed. An identical blast had occurred at almost the same location about a year ago.
At around the same time, another bomb went off on the tracks near the Habib Sugar Mills in Shaheed Benazirabad. The SSP of Hyderabad, Syed Asad Raza Shah, said that the police found leaflets of a shadowy separatist group, the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army, near the site of the blast. He added that a special investigation team had been formed to look into the incident.
The Hussainabad police station has identified men who might be behind the blasts and have registered a case against them under sections 3 and 4 of the Anti Terrorism Act.
The leader of a team from the Bomb Disposal Squad, Saleem Vistro, said that the explosives used in the attacks weighed less than half a kilogram each. His team has collected traces of the device for further investigation.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2011.
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