ISLAMABAD: At least one person was injured when an explosion derailed three coaches of the Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, Pakistan’s state media reported on Monday.
The train, which was en route to Quetta from Peshawar, derailed in Sindh’s Shkarpur district after the explosion damaged part of the railway track, the APP news agency reported, citing Sukkur Divisional Superintendent of Railways Jamshaid Alam.
The incident forced authorities to suspend train operations on Monday evening.
“Teams from Sukkur were summoned to start repairing work after the incident,” the report read. “It may take up to further five hours to restore the track.”
This is the second incident involving Jaffar Express since it resumed operations in March, following a rare hijacking by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist militants in March with 400 passengers aboard.
The hijacking in the rugged Bolan mountain range ended on March 12 after an hours-long military operation that killed 33 militants and rescued hostages. The standoff also left 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
In June, the train narrowly avoided a disaster, when a bogie of its power van derailed near Shikarpur’s Mandi Phatak area, according to the APP report.
The provincial government has ordered an investigation into Monday’s explosion.
Pakistan’s railway system faces frequent derailments due to poor maintenance and militant attacks targeting rail tracks, especially in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
These incidents underscore an urgent need for infrastructure and security upgrades across the rail network.
