Blast derails passenger train in Pakistan, 15 injured

KARACHI: At least 15 people, including two women, were injured today when a passenger train derailed after militants triggered a blast on the railway track in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.

The unknown militants had planted a bomb on the track near Thul town of Jacobabad district.

Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique confirmed the attack that derailed three carriages of the Khushhal Khan Khattak Express.

"Those involved in the attack are coward rats...The hands of the laws will definitely find their throats," he said in a strongly-worded statement.

The injured, including two women, were shifted to Thul's Civil Hospital for treatment.

The Railway Minister warned that railway officials would be punished if they are found to be negligent in an investigation he ordered into the incident.

He said the probe should be completed within three days. Nobody took responsibility for the attack, but Baloch and Sindhi nationalists have targeted the railways in the past.

The Khushhal Khan Khattak Express has been attacked twice in the past.

On January 29, a portion of the railway tracks near Thul town were destroyed in a huge explosion. More than three feet of the tracks were blown off.

The bomb went off as soon as Peshawar-bound Khushal Khan Khatak Express passed the blast spot.