At least seven people were injured on Tuesday after an explosion in a railway road, four bogies of the Jaffar Express were derailed in the Sindh Shikarpur district, according to the officials.
With an increase in terrorist attacks in recent years, Baluchistan has seen a series of incidents in which the militants exploit the train tracks, pointing to the transport infrastructure of the province.
Talking with Dawn.comShikarpur’s attached commissioner Shakeel Abro said an explosion on the train tracks at 8:15 am said the incident occurred at a distance of 1 km from the Sultan Kot train station.
He said the explosion had caused the derailment of four bogies. Abro said that seven people had been injured, of which four had been taken to the combined military hospital, while the remaining three had been taken to the Civil Hospital in Shikarpur.
He said the Jaffar Express train was intended for Quetta through Jacobabad.
The attached superintendent of the Sukkur division, Syed Moalim, said the explosion occurred while the train moved on the track. He said that rail officials brought a crane to replace the derailled bogies on the track.
Sukkur Divisional Transport Official (DTO) Mohsin Ali Sial said Dawn.com that passengers were being taken to nearby stations so that the work could begin to repair the road.
Shikarpur’s Senior Superintendent (SSP) Shahzeb Chachar said the remaining bogies had proceeded to Jacobabad. He said the explosion had been directed to a single route used by the trains that go and since Quetta through Jacobabad.
He argued that the police in Jacobabad and Shikarpur tried to track the culprits responsible for the incident.
Meanwhile, Sindh’s prime minister Murad Ali Shah condemned the incident. According Pakistan radioShah sought a report by the incident of the Inspector General of the Sindh Police.
He also ordered the Larkana Commissioner to provide medical assistance to injured passengers.
In August, no loss of lives was reported after a pump explosion on a railway route in the Mastung district of Baluchistan derailed six bogies of the Express Jaffar. The incident occurred near the Spezand station in Dasht Tehsil in Mastung, when the train was heading to the Peshawar city station with 350 passengers on board.
The incident occurred only three days after Jaffar Express, destined for Quetta, escaped by little of a disaster in the Baluchistan Sibi, where a pump planted near the track exploded just after the passenger train passed.
