 Amid an escalating campaign of tribal violence in troubled southwestern Pakistan, a key railway track was ripped apart by a blast for the third time in a week yesterday, officials said. The attack in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, came a day after the military announced plans to set up a new garrison to protect the country's largest gas field. In yesterday's attack, a blast ripped apart the mainline near Mushkaf, about 85 kilometers west of the provincial capital Quetta, senior railway official Ghulam Rasool told reporters. "The track was damaged by explosives planted by saboteurs," Rasool said. Two trains to Quetta were delayed for a few hours before engineers could repair the main line, which links Balochistan with the southern port city of Karachi, he said. |