Several people were injured in a powerful explosion of the Jaffar Express in Balochistan province of Pakistan on Tuesday when a planned explosive device exploded on the tracks. The Quetta-bound Jaffar Express was targeted near the Sultankot area, close to the Sindh-Balochistan border in Pakistan.
The explosion caused multiple coaches of the train to derail. As per the reports, several injuries have been confirmed. However, the complete damage and casualties remain unclear till now.
The Baloch Republic Guards, the Baloch rebel groups, have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack: “The train was attacked at a time when personnel of the occupying Pakistani Army were travelling on board. As a result of the explosion, several soldiers were killed and injured, and six coaches of the train derailed,” the Baloch Republican Guards said in a statement.”
“The BRG claims responsibility for this attack and declares that such operations will continue until the independence of Balochistan,” it added.
The relief work is being conducted by the rescue team ahead of the blast, the medical crews are treating the wounded and the official probe of the attack is underway.
Spate of blasts
On September 24, at least a dozen-odd people, including women and children, were injured in a bombing attack on the same train in the Spizend area of Mastung in Balochistan.
On August 10, four people were injured when an improvised explosive device derailed six coaches of the Peshawar-bound Jafar Express in the Mastung district.
On August 7, the train narrowly escaped a disaster near Balochistan’s Sibi railway station, where a bomb planted near the track exploded just after the passenger train had passed.
In another incident, on August 4, gunmen fired five bullets at its pilot engine near Kolpur. The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the latter attack.
A July 28 derailment of the same train in Sindh province’s Sukkur was initially attributed to an explosion, but the Ministry of Railways later said it was due to a technical fault.
In June, a remotely controlled explosive device fitted to rail tracks exploded, causing four bogies of the Jaffar Express to derail in Jacobabad.
