QUETTA, May 31: The Bolan Mail from Karachi escaped a major disaster by a few minutes when saboteurs blew up a section of the rail track near Dera Murad Jamali in the Nasirabad district on Wednesday. The blast took place soon after the train had passed the point.

Quetta remained cut off from the rest of the country for several hours as a result of the attack on the main track linking Quetta with Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP.

Officials told this correspondent that high explosives and a timer had been planted under the track.

A seven-foot piece of the track was missing, the officials said. All Quetta-bound trains were stopped at various stations after the blast while trains from Quetta were delayed.

Stranded passengers braved severe heat as mercury climbed to 52 degrees Centigrade in Sibi and Nasirabad districts where most of the trains had been stopped.

The rail traffic was restored after 4pm after the tracks had been repaired.

Meanwhile, reports have been received of clashes between security forces and armed tribesmen in Ghori Nullah and Qambar Lango areas of Dera Bugti in heavy weapons were used. Some casualties were reported.

Nawab Bugti’s spokesman Wadera Alam Khan Bugti claimed that security forces suffered casualties in the clash that lasted two hours.

He told newsmen over phone from Dera Bugti that six security men had been killed and five others injured in the two clashes.

Official sources denied any casualty in the clashes and said that armed men had fired at least nine rockets on the FC check-posts in the Chashma area but there was no casualty.