Six die in Pakistan train attack

Six people have died and nearly 20 others have been injured in a bomb attack targeting a passenger train in southwestern Pakistan.

The attack was carried out on Monday, when a bomb went off on the railway track near a station in Naseer Abad District of Baluchistan Province.

“It was a bomb blast, the target was the passenger train. At least six people have been killed,” said the provincial home secretary, Asad Gilani.

Meanwhile, Zafar Shah Bukhari, a senior official in the area, said the explosion derailed the train, which was traveling from Rawalpindi to Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

Bukhari added that some of the wounded are in critical condition.

Local authorities have launched an investigation into the fatal incident.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Pakistan often blames separatist groups in the area for such assaults.

Some separatist groups in Baluchistan demand greater political autonomy and a share of the natural resources in the province.

In August, gunmen fired on a checkpoint of the paramilitary Frontier Corps on the outskirts of Quetta. One Pakistani soldier was killed and two others were injured in the attack.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the United States in the so-called war on terrorism.