Quetta Train Services Suspended After Balochistan Blast — Officials

Train services connecting Quetta with the rest of Pakistan remained suspended for a second consecutive day on Friday, with railway officials attributing the ongoing disruption to “unavoidable circumstances” — a reference to the deadly blast that struck near the Chaman Phatak railway track in Quetta on May 24.

Officials confirmed that the Jaffar Express, which operates on the Quetta–Peshawar route, would not depart on Friday, while the return service from Peshawar would be sent back from Jacobabad rather than continuing to Quetta. Railway authorities further noted that train operations across Balochistan as a whole had been suspended for two days, with the Bolan Mail and Chaman Passenger services to Karachi already having been brought to a halt.

The disruption also rippled through Karachi, where several outbound trains experienced significant delays. Railway police reported that the Tezgam departed at 1:30am — nearly eight hours behind its scheduled 5:30pm slot — triggering passenger protests at Cantt Station. The Sukkur Express, originally timetabled to leave at 11:30pm, had still not departed as of Friday morning.

The suspensions stem from a devastating explosion on May 24, when a blast near the railway track at Chaman Phatak in Quetta killed at least 14 people, among them three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, and wounded several others. The Balochistan government spokesperson confirmed the casualty figures, adding that a number of women and children were also injured in the attack and transferred to hospitals for treatment.

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Zhob District, Balochistan, on Wednesday to mark Eid ul Adha with frontline troops deployed along the Western frontiers. During the visit, he addressed the Quetta attack directly. An Inter-Services Public Relations statement noted that Field Marshal Munir, referring to the incident as a “cowardly terrorist” act orchestrated by “Indian-sponsored Fitna-al-Hindustan and its proxies,” reaffirmed that “such inhuman and brutal acts cannot weaken the resolve of Pakistan Armed Forces or the nation.”

The CDF stressed that the morale of both the troops and the Pakistani public remained firm, and pledged that the armed forces, working hand-in-hand with law enforcement agencies and the people of Balochistan, “would continue to pursue all facilitators, abettors and perpetrators of terrorism with full force.”