The Jaffar Specific – which runs for 1,000 miles between Peshawar in Pakistan’s north-west and Quetta in its troubled south-west – is quick turning into the nation’s most harmful prepare.
In 2025 alone, it has been bombed, hijacked, shot at, and derailed at the very least seven occasions, making it a key goal of militant violence.
At the very least seven folks had been injured on Tuesday when a robust blast tore by way of the prepare, within the newest incident derailing 4 of its coaches close to Sultan Kot railway station in Sindh province.
The explosion, brought on by an improvised explosive machine (IED), was the seventh assault this 12 months on a passenger prepare that connects the insurgency-hit province of Balochistan with the remainder of Pakistan.
Police mentioned about 5 kilos of explosives had been used within the machine, which detonated on the tracks because the Quetta-bound prepare travelled from Peshawar.
“At the very least seven folks had been injured, one in all them severely, when 4 bogies overturned because of a blast close to Sultan Kot railway station this morning,” a senior police officer advised Arab Information. The injured had been moved to hospital, the place all at the moment are mentioned to be in steady situation.
Sindh’s dwelling minister, Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar, ordered a right away investigation. “Terrorists concerned in damaging the railway monitor will quickly be delivered to justice,” he mentioned, promising a “thorough investigation” to determine the perpetrators.
By night, the Baloch Republican Guards (BRG), an armed separatist group, claimed accountability for the bombing.
In an announcement, the group mentioned: “The prepare was attacked at a time when personnel of the occupying Pakistani Military had been travelling on board. On account of the explosion, a number of troopers had been killed and injured, and 6 coaches of the prepare derailed.” The group added that “such operations will proceed till the independence of Balochistan,” reported the Firstpost.
Essentially the most devastating assault got here in March, when militants from the Balochistan Liberation Military (BLA) hijacked the prepare with round 400 passengers on board within the rugged Bolan mountain vary.
The standoff lasted greater than 30 hours earlier than safety forces stormed the prepare, killing 33 militants however with 23 troopers, three railway employees and 5 passengers shedding their lives within the assault.
In August, an IED blast derailed six coaches in Balochistan’s Mastung district, injuring 4 passengers. Simply days earlier, gunmen fired on the prepare’s pilot engine close to Kolpur – an assault claimed by the BLA. One other bomb went off close to Sibi railway station that very same month, narrowly lacking the prepare.
In June, a remotely detonated explosive derailed 4 coaches in Jacobabad, Sindh. Such is the frequency of the assaults, a derailment in Sukkur in July was initially suspected to be brought on by a blast earlier than officers confirmed it was because of a technical fault.
The Jaffar Specific is important for connecting Balochistan with the remainder of the nation and is commonly utilized by troopers and railway personnel, making it a recurring goal for militant teams.
Pakistan’s federal railways minister, Hanif Abbasi, blamed India for the repeated assaults.
“The terrorists concentrating on Jaffar Specific time and again are, the truth is, proxies of India that’s not able to digest its defeat throughout operation Bunyan Al Marsoos,” he advised the Daybreak, in an obvious reference to Pakistan’s retaliation to its hostile neighbour throughout the battle in Might.
India and Pakistan had been entangled in a navy stand-off after the Pahalgam assault wherein 26 folks had been killed. “These cowardly acts can’t cease Pakistan Railways from working this prepare.”
Whereas India has not but issued an announcement on the allegation by Pakistan over the latest assault, previously it rejected the declare.
Mr Abbasi praised the “courageous drivers, guards and different crew members” who continued to work on the service regardless of the repeated assaults, including: “I additionally salute our passengers who proceed to journey on this prepare, giving a message to cowardly terrorists that Pakistanis are a courageous nation that may by no means give up.”
Sindh’s chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, condemned the assault and requested for a right away report from the police. He directed that “the very best medical help” be offered to the wounded passengers, reported the Daybreak.
The Jaffar Specific runs by way of Pakistan’s most unstable hall. The province of Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been the centre of a long-running insurgency led by armed separatist teams such because the Balochistan Liberation Military, the Baloch Republican Guards, and the Baloch Liberation Entrance.
These teams declare to be preventing for independence from Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting Balochistan’s pure fuel, mineral and coastal sources whereas leaving its 15 million residents impoverished.
The province stays important to commerce and housing the Chinese language-backed Gwadar deep-sea port – a key node in Beijing’s Belt and Street Initiative linking western China to the Arabian Sea.
For Baloch insurgents, the Jaffar Specific symbolises the state’s presence and attain within the area. Safety personnel, authorities officers and merchants often use the prepare to journey between Quetta and different cities, making it an interesting goal.
Based on Al Jazeera, the BLA – one of many largest and most energetic separatist teams – has expanded its assaults from fuel pipelines and safety convoys in December 2023, to public infrastructure, in an obvious try to disrupt Pakistan’s financial and strategic connectivity initiatives.
The group, also called the Majeed Brigade, was designated a overseas terrorist organisation by america in August this 12 months, tightening restrictions on any monetary or materials assist for its operations.
The Baloch Republican Guards, which claimed Tuesday’s assault, is a part of a unfastened alliance of rebel outfits often known as the Baloch Raaji Aajohi Sangar.
It was fashioned in 2012, following the killing of a Baloch chief’s members of the family and has since carried out dozens of bombings throughout Sindh and Balochistan, together with an assault on a pure fuel pipeline in 2023 in Rahim Yar Khan district that disrupted provide to elements of Punjab.
Human rights activists accuse the Pakistani Military of widespread abuses within the province, together with extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of younger males suspected of sympathising with separatists.
Earlier in April this 12 months, UN’s workplace of Excessive commissioner urged Pakistan to handle human rights violation in Balochistan.
Expressing severe considerations over “the extreme and dangerous impacts of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism measures in Balochistan,” the UN human rights consultants “known as for full respect for worldwide regulation”.
“We acknowledge the intense risk posed by armed teams in Balochistan and categorical our solidarity with the victims of terrorism,” the consultants mentioned. “All measures to counter terrorism should all the time respect worldwide human rights and humanitarian regulation.”
The Pakistan authorities denies claims of human rights abuse and enforced disappearances, insisting that most of the lacking have joined separatist teams or fled the nation.
The insurgency has erupted in waves since Pakistan’s creation in 1947, with the most recent rebellion starting within the early 2000s. Whereas early actions sought higher autonomy and useful resource management, the fashionable Baloch wrestle more and more calls for full independence.
Regardless of the repeated assaults, Pakistan Railways insists the Jaffar Specific will preserve working. “We’ll by no means be afraid of such assaults,” Mr Abbasi advised the Daybreak, including that the safety to the prepare routes can be tightened. “The prepare will proceed as per routine.”
