Bombing derails passenger train in SW Pakistan, injures 15

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb planted by suspected militants derailed a passenger train in a remote area in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, injuring at least 15 people on board, officials said.

The train was passing through the district of Bolan in Baluchistan province when the bomb went off, according to a district administrator, Samiullah Agha. He said rescuers transported the injured to a nearby hospital, and engineers were repairing the damaged rail tracks.

The explosion was so powerful that it derailed eight train cars, Agha said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both separatist and militant groups are active in the region. For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by ethnic Baluch separatists seeking autonomy from the Islamabad government or outright independence

Pakistani militants also have a presence in the province, which borders both Afghanistan and Iran.

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