Blast near railway tracks injures 25 in Jacobabad

Published February 12, 2015
— AFP/file
— AFP/file

JACOBABAD: At least 25 people, including women and children, were wounded on Thursday in a remote-controlled explosion on railway tracks near Dil Murad station in Sindh's Jacobabad district, DawnNews reported.

The Peshawar-bound Khushhal Khan Khattak Express, which was coming from Karachi, was near Dil Murad railway station when a bomb planted on the tracks was remotely detonated, causing four bogies of the locomotive to derail.

Spokesman Baloch Republican Army (BRA) Sarbaz Baloch accepted the responsibility for targeting the railway tracks and said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Balochis in Basima area of Kharan.

The blast also damaged a 30-feet track resulting in suspension of railway traffic between Karachi and the rest of the country.

Rescue and emergency team personnel reached the blast site while victims were shifted to Civil Hospital for medical treatment.

Read: Sukkur Express bogie gutted at Jacobabad station

Security personnel cordoned off the area as a probe into the blast went underway.

SSP Jacobabad said that miscreants had carried out the blast using a remote-controlled detonator. He added that evidence was being collected to trace the culprits.

Railways officials said that repairs of the damaged portion of track was underway and railway traffic would be resumed as soon the repair work was completed.

Also read: Seven killed as blast hits Khushhal express in Jacobabad

Earlier on Wednesday, one bogie of the Sukkur Express was gutted and another one was damaged when a fire broke out while the train was stationed at Jacobabad. It was the fourth incident of its kind in recent months on this sector,

At least seven people were killed and more than 30 others wounded near Unnar Wah railway station in Jacobabad in a similar incident in February last year.

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