QUETTA, March 8: Pakistan has increased security on passenger trains to Iran following repeated rocket and bomb attacks in Balochistan but denied reports it would suspend services.

“There is no suspension of the train service from Pakistan to Iran,” the Pakistan Railways general manager, Salimur Rehman, told AFP.

“We suspended goods train service for only three or four days but passenger trains are operating,” he said.

Pakistan operates a fortnightly service to the Iranian border city of Zahidan from Quetta.

Pakistan Railways chief operating officer Mohammad Asadullah also stressed that twice-a-month train services to Iran had not been suspended.

The next train will go to Zahidan on schedule on March 15, he said. Security on the route has been enhanced following requests by locomotive drivers after recent attacks on trains in Balochistan, he said.

Balochistan is intermittently troubled by an insurgency from rebel tribesmen demanding greater autonomy and higher share of profits from local gas and oil reserves.

Rebels often target gas pipelines and railway tracks to press their demands.—AFP