Pakistan sends condolences as Indonesia quake kills more than 160
Pakistan sends condolences as Indonesia quake kills more than 160/node/2203541/pakistan
Pakistan sends condolences as Indonesia quake kills more than 160
Medical workers treat the victims outside the district hospital after earthquake hit in Cianjur, West Java province, Indonesia, November 21, 2022, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Antara Foto via Reuters)
Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday condoled with the government and people of Indonesia as a 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 160 people and injured hundreds in the country's West Java province.
The governor of the worst-hit province and a local official said the death toll from an earthquake on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday had jumped to 162.
"Tragic news of the earthquake and resultant loss of precious lives in Indonesia," the Pakistani foreign minister said on Twitter.
"Our heartfelt condolences and prayers for our Indonesian brothers and sisters, especially families of the victims."
Tragic news of the earthquake and resultant loss of precious lives in Indonesia. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers for our Indonesian brothers and sisters, especially families of the victims.
Indonesia straddles the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
The Jaffar Express stands derailed near Abad Railway Station in Jacobabad following a blast on January 26, 2026. (AN Photo/Saadullah Akhtar)
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
The Jaffar Express stands derailed near Abad Railway Station in Jacobabad following a blast on January 26, 2026. (AN Photo/Saadullah Akhtar)
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
