Rail services disrupted: Six dead as insurgents bomb Jaffar Express

Baloch Republican Army claims responsibility for the attack.

QUETTA:

A passenger train derailed when a bomb tore through one of its wagons in the Nautal area of Nasirabad district of Balochistan on Monday, killing at least six people and injuring more than a dozen.

The impact of the blast caused four other wagons of Jaffar Express to derail. Train service was suspended in the region as the blast destroyed part of the railway track.

“It was a remote-controlled device and the target was Jaffar Express which was en route to Quetta from Rawalpindi,” Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti told a news conference.

Local police officer Khan Muhammad confirmed the fatalities. “The victims included two brothers and a woman,” he told The Express Tribune by phone from Nasirabad. “The injured were driven to hospitals in Sibi and Dera Murad Jamali where a state of emergency was declared.”

The outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. The group’s spokesperson told Quetta-based reporters by satellite phone that the train was carrying security personnel who were returning to Balochistan after spending Eidul Azha in Punjab.

The deceased brothers were identified as Waseem and Naeem, residents of Sadiqabad, in Punjab, while the woman was a police constable, Sharifa Bibi.

“The blast tore apart at least 30-foot portion of the railway track. While railways workers were sent to the area to repair the track, Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express, Lahore-bound Nawab Akbar Bugti Express and Karachi-bound Bolan Mail were stopped at Quetta railway station,” said a Pakistan Railways spokesperson, Abbas Ali.

A special train was sent to the site to transport the passengers of the targeted train to Quetta.

The head of Frontier Corps immediately flew to Dera Murad Jamali to visit the crime scene. “A team of doctors also travelled with the inspector general of FC,” a spokesperson for the paramilitary force said.

Provincial Home Minister Sardar Sarfraz Bugti said the administration would take action against the perpetrators. “The government is trying to address the problems of Balochistan through dialogue – but it will take action against law breakers,” he added.

The nature and quantity of the explosives used in the blast wasn’t immediately known. “We are investigating the incident,” Bugti added.

Militants frequently target railway tracks and other government installations in Nasirabad division and Bugti Tribal Area where extraordinary security has been ordered. “The militants managed to evade security and plant the bomb on the railway track,” said Railways SP Chaudhry Riaz.

In other violence, armed men set fire to a station of Balochistan Levies in the Dasht area of Kechi district on Monday. Over two dozen men carrying automatic weapons drove on motorcycles to Balochistan Levies station in Dasht Kudan on the edge of Turbat city and took the staff hostage at gunpoint.

“They set fire to the station after looting official weapons from it,” a Levies official told The Express Tribune. Paramilitary troops and police reached the spot and mounted a manhunt for the attackers – but no detentions were made.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.