• Four rockets fired at Peshawar-bound train carrying 300 passengers
• Grenade hits police van in Dera Murad Jamali; two cops among 13 injured

DERA MURAD JAMALI: The Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express escaped a rocket attack in the Notal area of Nasir­abad district on Wedne­sday, while 13 people, including two police personnel, were injured in a separate grenade attack on a police van in Dera Murad Jamali.

Police officials said militants targeted the train, travelling from Quetta to Peshawar, as it passed thr­o­ugh Notal. “Armed men fired four rockets from a distance to target the passenger train,” SSP Nasira­bad Ghulam Sarwar told Dawn, adding that none of the rockets hit the train.

Railway officials said the train with around 300 passengers onboard remained safe and continued its journey. Police and Frontier Corps personnel travelling with the train returned fire with heavy weapons, forcing the attackers to flee.

“All passengers remai­ned safe as the rockets landed and exploded away from the train,” a police official said. Security forces later launched a combing operation to trace those involved.

Separately, 13 people, including two policemen, four children and two women, were injured when a grenade exploded near a police mobile on routine patrol in Dera Murad Jamali. Police said the device detonated close to a petrol pump as the vehicle passed by.

Soon after the blast, police and FC personnel cordoned off the area and shifted the injured to the district hospital. Hospital officials said at least five victims, including two policemen, sustained serious injuries. The police mobile was damaged in the explosion.

The injured were identified as police constables Shamus Din and Abdul Rasheed, Muhammad Ibrahim Lashari (a private guard at petrol pump), Syed Khan, Abdul Majid; Ahmed, Barkat Abro, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Ishaq Mengal, Imam Bakhsh, Benazir Solangi, and Gul Bano.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2025