Rocket attack on train kills two in Pakistan

QUETTA: Assailants fired a rocket at a moving train in a mountainous region in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing two passengers and wounding 24, a railway official said.
The unidentified militants made the gun and rocket attack on the passenger train in restive southwest Pakistan, near the village of Dozan as the train was heading to the town of Sibi in Baluchistan province, said railway official Kashif Khan.
Women and children were among the casualties in the attack, which came in Dozan area, some 35 km southeast of Quetta, the main town of Baluchistan province, which is beset by recent violence.
“We have taken two dead bodies and 24 injured to the hospital, the condition of most of the injured was critical because of excessive bleeding,” Zubair Kurd, a local government official in the area told AFP, warning that the death toll may increase.
Kurd said the attackers were hiding in the mountains and first started firing and then fired at least three rockets at the train, which was travelling from Quetta to Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad.
“They managed to escape. we have launched a search operation,” Kurd added.
The attack came nine days after separatist gunmen shot dead 14 people, including three security officials in Mach area, close to Dozan.
Later on Aug. 10, Pakistani troops claimed killing eight rebels linked to that attack.
Baluch rebels have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural oil, gas and mineral resources.
Security forces, backed by a military helicopter, launched a search in an effort to trace and arrest the attackers, said Khan. The dead and wounded had been taken to a government hospital, he added.
Dozan village is located about 50 km east of Quetta, capital of the impoverished province.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on separatists in Baluchistan who have long waged a low-level insurgency against the government.