Disaster averted: Bid to bomb train foiled

Quetta police chief praises residents for informing police about IEDs

QUETTA: The police claimed on Saturday that they have foiled a terrorist attack on a Punjab-bound passenger train and recovered two improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express was stopped at the Quetta railway station after police officials spotted explosives planted alongside the railway track.

“Suspected militants had planted two remote-controlled IEDs beneath the railway track to target the Jaffar Express. The bombs were, however, defused before the train chugged in,” said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema.

Residents had spotted suspected militants planting the bombs on the railway tracks. Subsequently, they informed the police, Cheema said lauding the residents for helping the police. A heavy contingent of security forces cordoned off the site while bomb experts defused the devices which weighed five kilogrammes each.



CCPO Cheema said the public support for the government’s counter-terrorism efforts was a good omen. “It shows that the Baloch people do not support militants and hate terrorism,” he added. He announced cash rewards for the informers.

The Jaffar Express left for its destination after the tracks were cleared.

Meanwhile, at least 24 prisoners facing life sentences were shifted to the Machh jail from the Quetta district jail on Saturday as part of ‘routine procedures’.

“There was no security issue,” IG Prisons Basheer Bangulzai told The Express Tribune when asked whether the inmates were shifted because of some security risk. “It was a routine matter,” he added.

The Quetta district jail is supposed to house under-trail prisoners (UTPs) while all those who have been relocated were sentenced to 25-year imprisonments by courts, Bangulzai said.

Interestingly, while the Quetta district jail is for UTPs, the prisoners shifted to Machh jail had been imprisoned there for the last three to four years. “They have now been sent to the Machh jail,” Bangulzai said.

“There are around 800 prisoners at the Quetta district jail and only one of them faces the death penalty,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2014.