QUETTA, Aug 16: At least two passengers were killed and 25 others, including women and children, injured in firing and rocket attack on the Punjab-bound Jaffar Express near Machh area of the Bolan district on Friday.

The injured included police and Levies personnel, women and children travelling in the train which was going from Quetta to Rawalpindi.

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch directed officials concerned to take tough action against those involved in the attack.

“Some armed men first opened indiscriminate fire on the train and then fired some rockets,” Zubair Kurd, an official of the Machh administration, told Dawn.

Sources said the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express left the Quetta station at 9am and when it was somewhere between Kolpur and Dozan near Machh, the unidentified armed men opened fire on the train from nearby mountains. After that they fired at least three rockets, badly damaging the locomotive and stopping the train.

The firing left two passengers, Molvi Muhammad Amjad Shahwani and Gul Sher, dead. Twenty-five other passengers, among them women, children and personnel of railway police and Levies, were injured. The security personnel present in the train took position and returned fire.

“A heavy exchange of fire continued for half an hour between security forces and the armed men,” Mr Kurd said, adding that soon after receiving information about the attack on the train, security forces deployed in Machh area rushed to the site and started a search operation with the help of helicopters.

“We took two bodies into custody and took 24 injured to Machh and Quetta hospitals,” Levies officials said.

They said that during shifting of the injured passengers to Quetta, two helicopters provided air cover to ambulances.

The attackers were hiding in nearby mountains which were very close to the railway track linking Quetta with the rest of the country. They openedfire on the train from four sides.

“The armed men suddenly started firing when the train became slow due to going downwards,” injured passenger Khalil Ahmed said.

“Passengers lay down on the floor of the train to save their lives,” another injured Tahir Ali said, adding that they had seen the death from very close.

Sources in Quetta Civil Hospital said the condition of six injured was serious as they had received multiple bullet injuries. Levies sources said that two passengers killed in the attack belonged to Mastung and Harnai.

Railway officials said that locomotive carrying Jaffar Express was badly damaged in the attack. However, the train was allowed to continue its journey after two and half hours of the incident after replacement of its engine. They said that soon after the incident, all Quetta-bound passenger trains were stopped at different railway stations. They further said that Quetta

Express would not leave for Rawalpindi on Saturday as it was cancelled due to the same reason.

Some of the injured were identified as Mohamamd Yousuf, Khalil Ahmed, Tahir Ali, Abdul Bari, Fazal-ur-Rehman, Shafiq Ahmed, Inayat Hussain, Azeem Khan, Bibi Sabeen, Asma, Mohammad Usman, Mehrullah, Jamil Ahmed, Ms Qadir, Yasir Ali, his wife Hafiqa, Sanaullah, Jhamsheed Khan, Naseer Ahmed, Mumtaz Ali, Mohammad Ilyaz, Atiya Azeem and Mahto.