QUETTA: An improvised explosive device (IED) blast on Tuesday derailed five coaches of Quetta-bound Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials and rescue workers said.
The latest bomb attack on the passenger train took place in Dasht area of Balochistan’s Mastung district, when it was heading to the provincial capital of Quetta from Peshawar in the country’s northwest.
Muhammad Kamran, an Edhi volunteer, told Arab News that two passengers received minor injuries in the incident, who were shifted to hospital. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Five coaches of Jaffar Express were derailed and one of them completely overturned after a powerful blast hit the train,” Imran Hayat, the Quetta divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways, told Arab News.
“All passengers were evacuated and relief operation is continued along with the district administration.”
This is the fifth attack on passenger trains and railway track in Pakistan’s Balochistan since August.
On Aug. 10, a bomb attack targeted Jaffar Express and derailed five coaches near Quetta, while in March this year, fighters belonging to the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) stormed the same train with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
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.
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 buses and trains in the restive region.
Separatist groups operating in the region accuse the central government of stealing their 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.
