Rail link between Quetta and rest of Pakistan disrupted after track blown up by unidentified persons

Dera Murad Jamali (Pakistan): Rail services connecting Quetta with other parts of Pakistan were disrupted for several hours on Monday after unknown assailants blew up a section of the railway track near Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan’s Nasirabad district, Dawn reported.

According to police, an explosive device was planted on the main railway track in the Dera Murad Jamali area and detonated in the morning. “Around a two-foot-long portion of the track was blown up, suspending rail service,” police officials said.

Law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot soon after the blast and launched an investigation. Preliminary findings suggest that the device was detonated using a remote control and contained around three kilograms of explosives, Dawn reported.

The latest incident follows a series of attacks on railway infrastructure in the region. In November 2025, the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express came under armed attack in the Bolan Pass area of Kachhi district. Earlier, a bomb blast had damaged the railway track between Quetta and Jacobabad.

Since March 11 last year, when Balochistan Liberation Army militants ambushed a Peshawar-bound train carrying 440 passengers, multiple attacks targeting trains and tracks have been reported. On June 18, a remote-controlled explosive derailed four bogies near Jacobabad, an attack claimed by the banned Baloch Republican Guards. On August 7, a train narrowly escaped another explosion near Sibi.

Three days later in Mastung, “a bomb attached to the railway track exploded loudly, derailing six bogies of the train”, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta division public relations officer Muhammad Kashif.

Further incidents were reported in September and October. On September 23, at least four passengers were injured when six bogies derailed in Mastung. On October 7, seven people were injured in Sindh’s Shikarpur district when “a blast had occurred on the train tracks.”

On October 29, the Jaffar Express also escaped a rocket attack in the Notal area of Nasirabad. Nasirabad SSP Ghulam Sarwar told Dawn that “armed men fired four rockets from a distance to target the passenger train”, though none struck the coaches.

ANI