SUKKUR: Four bogies and the locomotive of a Quetta-bound passenger train derailed when a bomb exploded on the track in Jacobabad on Saturday. But no one was killed or injured because the train was moving slowly.

However, train service on the Sukkur-Jacobabad section was suspended as different trains were halted at Shikarpur, Rohri, Sukkur and Jacobabad stations.

Jaffar Express was coming from Lahore when an explosive device planted on the track went off, ripping apart a 320-foot part of the track and creating an eight-foot wide and six-foot deep crater. The derailed locomotive and carriages were damaged but did not overturn as their wheels sank into the soil.

The Khushhal Khan Khattak Express, Bolan Mail, Akbar Bugti Express and others trains halted at different stations where passengers faced hardships because of scorching heat and shortage of food and water.

The trains will resume their journey after repair of the track which has been undertaken by the Railway administration.

Jacobabad SSP Zafar Iqbal Malik termed the incident an act of terrorism and said the banned Baloch Liberation Army might be involved in it as the organisation had earlier carried out such explosions in Kandhkot area.

The SSP Railways police, Malik Atiq, said an explosive device weighing 8-10kg had been used in the remote-controlled blast.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2015

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