Pakistan: Three coaches of Jaffer Express derail due to explosion; 1 injured
Peshawar (PTI): Three coaches of the Quetta-bound Jaffer Express train derailed due to an explosion on Monday, leaving one injured in Pakistan's southeast Sindh province, officials said.
While railway officials said that it may take up to another five hours to restore the track from rain traffic, the Sindh administration has ordered an investigation into the incident.
Sukkur Railways Divisional Superintendent Jamshaid Alam said the Jaffar Express was travelling from Peshawar to Quetta when it got caught in an explosion near Shikarpur in Sindh Province. Rescue teams from Sukkur were immediately dispatched to start repair work.
"Following the blast, train operations have been suspended," Alam said, adding that passengers "faced serious difficulties due to the derailment".
This is not the first time the train has suffered such an incident.
In June, the detonation of a remote-controlled explosive device fitted to rail tracks derailed four bogies of the Jaffar Express near the cattle market in Jacobabad. No one was injured in the incident, but the attack was reportedly claimed by the banned Baloch Republican Guards in a statement.
On March 11, the train became the target of an unprecedented hijacking when terrorists fired on the locomotive and took over 400 passengers hostage.
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SC quashes FIR against Karnataka BJP MLA R Ashoka in land allotment corruption case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has quashed an FIR registered by the Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against former deputy chief minister and BJP MLA R Ashoka in a land allotment corruption case.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Vipul M Pancholi said the FIR shows a concerted effort on the part of the complainants to cast aspersions on the credibility of the appellant as a public leader and impute ill intention on him.
"The actions against the appellant ex-facie appear to be politically motivated and thereby afflicted by malice, even if delay was kept aside, the prosecution of the appellant could not proceed in the eyes of the law," the bench said.
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In this case, an FIR was registered by the Karnataka ACB to probe the allegations made regarding illegalities in land allotments during Ashoka's tenure as head of the Bengaluru South Taluk Bagar Hukum Land Regularisation Committee.
A complaint was filed that during his tenure, illegal allotment of government land meant for SC/ST and the poor was made to his family members, political followers and corporators.
The top court referred to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Tryst with Destiny' speech in which he said, "The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity."
Setting aside a Karnataka High Court order that dismissed Ashoka's petition seeking quashing of the FIR against him, the apex court observed that the proceedings were initiated against Ashoka, a public servant, without obtaining a sanction order from the state government.
"Not to overextend the issue, it is seen that the record is conspicuously silent on any sanction having been obtained against the appellant. Since no investigation could have begun without such sanction, the preliminary report of the ACB, subsequent FIR and any and all proceedings thereafter have operated in the face of an express bar," the bench said.
