At least 13 injured after a bomb attack derailed a train in Bolan district of Balochistan province, a local official says.
Islamabad, Pakistan – At least 13 people have been injured after a bomb blast derailed a passenger train in southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
The bomb exploded after noon (07:00 GMT) on Friday as the Jaffar Express passenger train passed through Bolan district, more than 150 kilometers (more than 90 miles) from the provincial capital Quetta, authorities said.
The train went to Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The blast derailed eight train cars, including the engine, a local official said.
Samiullah said stranded passengers would be sent to Quetta by bus [Image courtesty of Agha Samiullah, the deputy commissioner of the Bolan district/Al Jazeera]
“We transferred the slightly injured to the Civil-Military Hospital in the nearby city of Sibi, while the two seriously injured were taken to Quetta,” Agha Samiullah, deputy commissioner of Bolan district, told Al Jazeera by phone.
Samiullah said the rescue operation would be completed soon and expressed hope that the train tracks would be operational later in the night.
“We send the passengers to Quetta City by bus,” he added.
Balochistan Prime Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo issued a statement condemning the attack and ordering the local administration to provide immediate rescue services.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province and has the country’s highest poverty rate. The region is also the center of a decades-old Separatist movement.
[Al Jazeera]
The rebels have fought the government for decades, demanding a separate state and saying the central government is unfairly exploiting Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.
Separately, there are growing security concerns in the province after the armed group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced last November that it would unilaterally end the ceasefire with the government.
The group, formed in 2007 and ideologically allied to the Afghan Taliban, carried out an attack on a police vehicle in Quetta days after the announcement.