QUETTA: Four passengers of Quetta bound Jaffar Express, including a woman and 10 years old girl were killed and  31 other injured, including women and children,  in a blast at railway track near Dera Murad Jamali, on Sunday.

train service between Quetta and rest of the country  suspended after the powerful blast.country. No one has claimed responsibility of the bombing passenger train so far.

Railway officials said that seven bogies of the passenger train were derailed and a big  portion of the railway track damaged in the blast.
The woman who died in the blast along with her young daughter belongs to Dera Allahyar and was on her way to Quetta with her husband who injured seriously.

Railway officials said that the Quetta bound Jaffar Express after brief stop at Dera Murad Jamali left for its next destination and when it reached in Rabi canal area of Nasirabad district, a powerful explosion took place at the railway track. “A bogey over turned and other bogies derailed, resulting in killing four persons and injuring 31 injured,” Irfan Bashir the District Police Officer said. Adding that it seems remote control blast and around 10 kg explosive was used for the blast.

Soon after the blast Deputy Commissioner Nasirabad Qurban Mangi rushed to the explosion site along with police and FC personnel who cordoned off the entire area and started rescue operation. FC commandant Anjum Shakeel and DPO Irfan Anjum also reached at the spot.

Emergency was declared in District Hospital Dear Murad Jamali. The people, including women and children were struck up in the bogy which over turned. FC and other police rescued the injured from the badly damaged bogy and shifted to hospital. “We have received four bodies and 31 injured in the hospital,” Dr. Ayaz Hussain Jamali said, adding that the condition of some injured is serious who were referred to Quetta and Larkana for treatment.

Deceased were identified as Noor Bano her 10 year old daughter Sadia, Shahzed Malik (Gujranwala) and Tahir Malik (Bahawalpur). The bodies of the blast victims were dispatched to their native towns. Train service was suspended between Quetta, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar after the blast and all incoming and outgoing passenger trains were stopped at Jacobabad and Sibi. A relief train reached at the blast site from Sukkur Railway division along with engineers and heavy machinery to clearer the main track for restoring rail traffic.

“Around 400 feet long portion of the railway track was completely destroyed in the blast while a bogy carrying passengers badly damaged,” a senior railway official in Quetta said, adding that heavy machinery was removing the damaged bogies. He said that engineers and other staff would launch replacing the destroyed track after removing wreckage of the destroyed bogies. “Restoring rails traffic between Quetta and rest of the country would take at least 36 hours,” railway officials Said.

The Balochistan Chief Minister, Jam Kamal Khan Alyani has strongly condemned the bomb attack on a passenger train and termed it a coward act in which innocent people were targeted. He said that the elements involved in this barbarian act wanted to please their masters sitting aboard. However, the government and the people of Balochistan would not bow down before these elements and dealt with them with Iron hand.

He expressed his grief and sorrow over the death of four persons, including a woman and her young daughter and said that the elements involved in the blast would be brought to task soon.