Passenger train attacked in Bolan, two dead

Insurgents fired rockets at Akbar Bugti Express coming from Punjab.

QUETTA:

Suspected Baloch insurgents attacked a passenger train in a mountainous area of Bolan district on Monday, killing two persons. The Akbar Bugti Express was en route to Quetta from Lahore when the insurgents positioned atop mountains attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, a senior provincial official said.

“Two persons – a railways police constable and a passenger – were killed and six others were wounded in the attack,” Home Secretary Asad Gillani told The Express Tribune.

The attackers had managed to flee before contingents of Balochistan Levies and Frontier Corps reached the spot.

The casualties were shifted to the Civil Hospital in the nearby Mach town. “We received two bodies and six injured people,” a medic at the hospital told The Express Tribune by phone. The injured were later ferried to the Provincial Sandeman Hospital in Quetta.

The deceased were identified as railways police constable Muhammad Ali and passenger Muhammad Nadeem, who hailed from Punjab.

According to an official of Pakistan Railways, the train left for Quetta two hours after the attack following a security clearance. “The attack did not affect the rail service in the region,” said the official, Muhammad Kashif.

Home Secretary Gillani said that the security forces have mounted a manhunt for the attackers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but in the past similar attacks were carried out by Baloch insurgent groups in Bolan and Naseerabad Division.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2014.