Peshawar-bound Jafar Express was attacked again in Balochistan, which is the 6th such incident in 6 weeks. There were no casualties in the recent firing. Security has been tightened due to continuous bomb and rocket attacks on the train.
Quetta: On Monday, there was once again an armed attack on the Peshawar-bound Jafar Express in the Bolan Pass area of Kutchhi district. This is the sixth such incident on the Quetta-Sibi section in the last 6 weeks. Railway officials said that the train had left Quetta for Peshawar on time and when it reached Aab-e-Gham, gunmen started firing from the nearby mountains.
The security personnel present on the train, including the Railway Police, returned fire, following which the attackers fled after a brief exchange of fire. Officials confirmed that all coaches of the Jafar Express remained safe. “There is no report of any casualty in the firing and all passengers traveling in the train are safe,” a senior railway official said.
According to Dawn, after getting security clearance, the train stopped for a while and then proceeded on its journey. Authorities have tightened security along the track.
Monday’s attack is a continuation of several recent attacks on the Jafar Express. In the past few weeks, a bomb blast had damaged the railway track between Quetta and Jacobabad.
Dawn quoted police and railway officials as saying that the same train had narrowly escaped another blast in Nasirabad district of Balochistan on November 16. According to information given by Dawn quoting police, unidentified assailants planted an explosive on the track in Shaheed Abdul Aziz Bulo area to target a Peshawar-bound train and later detonated it.
The train passed through the area safely and there were no reports of any casualties. Nasirabad Senior Superintendent of Police Ghulam Sarwar said security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace those involved. Railway officials said a portion of the track was damaged in the blast, halting traffic between Quetta and the rest of the country.
Operations had resumed only on Sunday after being closed for four days due to security concerns. After reaching Jacobabad, Sindh, the Jafar Express continued its journey to Peshawar. Trains have been repeatedly targeted over the past several months, reflecting increasing attacks on transport infrastructure in Balochistan.
There have been several attacks since March 11, when Balochistan Liberation Army militants ambushed a Peshawar-bound train carrying 440 passengers. Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on 12 March that the clearance operation was “completed” and that all 33 attackers “were killed.”
Despite this, the attacks have continued. On 18 June, a remote-controlled explosive device derailed four bogies near Jacobabad, an attack reportedly claimed by the outlawed Baloch Republican Guards. On 7 August, near Sibi, the train narrowly escaped another blast. Three days later in Mastung, “a bomb attached to the railway track caused a massive explosion, causing six bogies of the train to derail,” Muhammad Kashif, public relations officer of the Quetta division of Pakistan Railways, told Dawn. Incidents continued in September and October.
On September 23, at least four passengers were injured when six bogies derailed in Mastung. On October 7, “an explosion occurred on train tracks” in Shikarpur district of Sindh, injuring seven people. Later, on 29 October, the Jafar Express narrowly missed a rocket attack in the Nuttal area of Nasirabad. Nasirabad SSP Ghulam Sarwar told Dawn that “armed men fired four rockets from a distance to target the passenger train,” but none hit the coach.