SUKKUR: The Peshawar-bound Khushhal Khan Khattak Express originating from Karachi escaped disaster when a bomb planted on its tracks went off minutes after it passed through the booby trap some half a kilometre from the Thull railway station in Jacobabad district on Thursday.

The bomb disposal squad from Shikarpur rushed to the spot, near the abandoned railway station of Odhano in the Dingri Pull locality, and found pieces of the explosive device and some other components suggesting that it was a remote-controlled bomb.

BDS officials said that the device was planted on the track and detonated by its remote control gadget. After examining the site, they said the blast blew up a three-foot-long piece of the track and left an eight-foot-wide crater.

A similar bomb blast on Feb 16, 2014 targeting the same train service in Jacobabad had left seven passengers dead and another 30 wounded as one of its coaches derailed and overturned while several others derailed.

Soon after the Thursday blast, the Karachi-bound Khushhal Khan Khattak Express was halted at the Haibat Shaheed station near Tangwani town of Kandhkot-Kashmore district until the track repair work was completed.

Jacobabad SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal Awan, Thull DSP (headquarters) Syed Asghar Ali Shah, other police officers and officials of the district administration and railways department supervised the investigation and repair work at the blast site.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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