Pakistan: Blast derails Jaffar Express near Sindh-Balochistan border, at least 7 injured

At least seven people have been injured in the blast on Tuesday that derailed the Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s Sindh province, according to an official.

A blast occurred on the train tracks at 8:15 am in Sindh’s Shikarpur district near the province’s border with the restive Balochistan province, Shikarpur Deputy Commissioner Shakeel Abro told Dawn newspaper.

Abro said that four bogies of the train derailed and at least seven people were injured.

Earlier in March, the Jaffar Express was hijacked and the standoff between hijackers and security forces lasted for more than 24 hours. It ended with dozens of deaths, including at least 21 soldiers and 33 hijackers dead. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the group leading the armed movement for Baloch self-determination, claimed responsibility for the hijacking.

#BreakingNews | #Jaffar Express train derails after powerful blast near Sultankot area, close to #Sindh-Balochistan border

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The Jaffar Express runs between Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Balochistan’s capital Quetta. It was going to Quetta at the time of blast.

In August, a bomb blast on tracks had derailed six bogies of Jaffar Express in Balochistan’s Mastung district. The incident took place just three days after a bomb exploded on tracks in Balochistan’s Sibi just after thet rain had passed.

For decades, Balochistan has been home to a raging movement against the Pakistani rule. Large sections of the Baloch people maintain that their homeland was unjustly occupied by Pakistan and merged into the country. They therefore treat Pakistani rule as occupation. Some groups waging the self-determination movement have taken up arms over the years, such as the BLA, and are waging an insurgency against what they call illegitimate Pakistani rule on Balochistan.

In recent months, such armed groups have ramped up their campaigns against Pakistan. In August, at least nine armymen, including a captain, were killed in an attack in the province’s Washuk district. In July, dozens of fighters launched simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security personnel in various parts of Balochistan and killed at least eight security personnel. That same month, gunmen killed three Frontier Corps personnel in in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.