Remotely detonated: Blast in Kachi suspends rail service

Another explosion near Sui halts gas supply to Punjab

QUETTA: Unidentified assailants blew up a railway track in Kachi district of Balochistan on Tuesday, suspending for a few yours rail service from the province to the rest of the country.

According to details shared by the police, an improvised explosive device (IED) was planted along the tracks near Mashkaf area in Kachi, close to Sibi.

The IED was remotely detonated; as a result a two-foot portion of the railway track was damaged in the explosion. Police and security forces reached the blast site soon after the attack.

The repair work took two hours to complete, during which all the passenger trains were made to stop at railway stations of Quetta and Sibi. However, rail services were restored soon after the repair, a railway official said.

Elsewhere, unidentified militants blew up a gas pipeline in Doli area on the outskirts of Sui in the Bugti tribal territory — suspending gas supply to several parts of Punjab.

According to official sources, militants attached explosive materials along the 16-inch diameter gas pipeline and detonated it through remote control. As a result of the explosion, gas supply to various parts of Punjab was suspended.

Personnel of law enforcing agencies cordoned off the area soon after the attack, as authorities immediately started repair work on the damaged pipeline — which was still underway till the filing of this story. Authorities suspect Baloch militants to be responsible for the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.