Five killed as bomber targets buses carrying security forces in Pakistan

Tariq Butt, Correspondent / Agencies

A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of buses carrying security forces in Balochistan province on Sunday, killing at least five officers and wounding 10 others, police said.

The attack occurred in Naushki, a district in Balochistan, said Zafar Zamanani, a local police chief.

"There were seven buses in the convoy which was heading to Taftan (on the Iranian border). At Noshki, a car laden with explosives hit one of the buses," said Zafar. The dead and wounded, some of whom in critical condition, were transported to a hospital. Authorities said separatist rebels opened fire on the buses after the car bombing.

Senior Superintendent of Police for Nouskhi district Hashim Momand said more than 30 paramilitary force members were also wounded.

Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, said security forces returned fire on Sunday and killed at least four of the attackers.

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.  Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement condemned the attack, which came as Pakistan deals with a growing security crisis in its regions bordering Afghanistan.

Train services to and from Balochistan, which were suspended after the attack on Jaffar Express, are likely to be resumed by next weekend, Pakistan Railways officials said, according to a report.

The engineers of Pakistan Railways have been asked to complete the repair and maintenance work on the track within the next three days. The railway authorities in Quetta have decided to send passenger coaches and locomotives damaged in the attack to Lahore for repair work.

The terrorists used explosives to stop the train and also sprayed bullets from both sides, breaking window glasses and causing other damages as well, the report said.

"The Jaffar Express had nine coaches and a locomotive. Three of them were derailed by the terrorists through blasts while bullet holes pierced the body of the remaining coaches,” a senior railway official said.

Bullet marks are also visible on the locomotive as well as all coaches, said the officials who wished not to be named.

"The train’s rake (set of coaches), including those damaged due to derailment, would be sent to the Mughalpura workshop in Lahore for repair,” officials disclosed.

About damages to the track and other infrastructure, they said a 600m stretch of railway track was damaged due to blasts and derailment. The cost of damage to the infrastructure is being assessed.

An official said engineers had started the repair and maintenance work of the track after removing the rolling stock. Work would take two to three days to complete, he added. "Hopefully, we will make the track ready for operations within the next three days.” The official said that after the repairs, the train operation will be resumed "if security agencies give us clearance”.

Earlier security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country's restive northwest, triggering gun battles that left at least two soldiers and nine militants dead, the military said in a statement.

The raids were conducted in the Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

According to local police officials, the insurgents were Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

In a separate incident, insurgents ambushed security forces in the northwestern Kurram district of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, local police said. However, authorities have yet to confirm any troop casualties.

Also during the day, a bomb exploded outside a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing cleric Mufti Shakir, local police said. It was unclear who was behind the attack and an investigation is continuing.

Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur also condemned a series of attacks on police across the province.

A blast tore through a mosque in northwestern Pakistan, police said, injuring an Islamist party leader and three others, including children.

Abdullah Nadeem, a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party, was believed to be the target of the blast and had been hospitalised with serious injures, said Asif Bahadar, a district police chief in South Waziristan. He said two children were among the injured. It was not immediately clear who was behind the explosion.