QUETTA, April 10: Saboteurs blew up rail tracks near Nushki on the Quetta-Zahidan sector, some 170kms in southwest of here on Monday. Railway officials said that rail traffic on the Quetta-Zahidan section was suspended after a two-foot section of the track was blown up. The damaged railway line was being repaired under heavy security.

“The track would be ready for rail traffic by Tuesday,” the officials said.

Meanwhile, at least five troops of the Makran Scouts, a wing of the Frontier Corps, were injured after a landmine exploded in the Mand area in Turbat district near the Iranian border. The incident occurred as the FC vehicle was on its way to Turbat from Mand, officials told this correspondent on telephone.

However, militants claimed killing “at least five security personnel” in the landmine blast and said that the FC vehicle had been blown up by a remote-controlled device.

In another incident, a minor girl, Marium, was injured after tribesmen opened fire on a passenger van in the Pesh Bogi area between Sui and Dera Bugti. The van was on its way to Dera Bugti from Sui.

The assailants disappeared after FC personnel reached the place and returned fire.

According to FC sources, Loralai Scouts, another Frontier Corps wing, raided a hideout of gun-runners in the Killi Barozai area and arrested three people and seized weapons and ammunition.

The arms cache included two anti-aircraft SAM missiles, 176 107mm rockets, four high-explosive bombs, 71 82mm mortar shells, 39 rounds of 74mm, 17,000 rounds of various calibres in addition to four rifles of different makes, 48 fuses and one machinegun.

FC sources said the arms and ammunition had been brought from across the border to carry out terrorist activities in Balochistan. They said that the men, arrested during the raid, had confessed that they were involved in gun-running.

Sources said that at least six rockets were fired on FC checkposts in the Dera Bugti area on Monday morning.

The sources also reported clashes in the Karmo-Wadh area in Kohlu district.

The sources said that rockets were fired on the Pir Koh gas field, damaging a gas well.

Meanwhile, security forces defused at least six powerful landmines from the Chashma area of the Pir Koh gas field, apparently meant for security forces’ vehicles.

A caller, who did not identify himself, claimed that these attacks were carried out by a recently-banned terrorist organisation and the Baloch Liberation Front.