Two killed as train attacked in Bolan

QUETTA: Two passengers of the Akbar Bugti Express were killed and 10 others were injured when unidentified armed men attacked the train in the Bolan district of Balochistan on Monday.

The Quetta-bound train, which was on its way from Lahore, was attacked in the Panir area of Bolan, some 95 kms from the provincial capital, by unidentified armed men with automatic weapons.

The attackers also fired two rockets which hit the bogies of the train, said officials of the Pakistan Railways. Reports suggested that the assailants had taken up positions in the Panir area near the Mach Tehsil, when they attacked the train at around 3:45pm. The attackers fired two rockets and used other modern weapons.

The Frontier Corps (FC) and Railways Police personnel retaliated. However, the attack was so sudden and intense that 12 passengers of the train sustained multiple injuries.

Railways officials told The News that two passengers, Muhammad Ali, a resident of Mach, and Muhammad Nadeem, who belongs to Bahawalpur, sustained multiple injuries when rockets hit the train and breathed their last on the spot.

The 10 injured were shifted to hospital in Mach for treatment where the condition of some of them is stated to be precarious. The officials said that on being informed, an additional force of FC and police reached the spot and cordoned off the area to trace out the attackers. Later, the train reached Quetta. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Agencies add: Unknown armed men also gunned down the driver of a container on the National Highway near the New Bus stop area in Naseerabad. The Afghanistan bound container from Karachi was on its way when two armed men on a motorbike opened fire on it. The container driver, Zar Bodin, died on the spot.Meanwhile, a boy was killed in an incident of firing in the Nawan Killi area by unknown persons. The deceased was identified as Manzoor.