LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful explosion inside a moving passenger train killed at least one person and wounded eight others in eastern Pakistan on Thursday, police and a railway spokesman said.
District Police Chief Mian Mahboob said the explosion happened in Chichawatni, a district in the eastern Punjab province. He said officers were still trying to determine whether it was a bomb or something else that caused the explosion while the train traveled between Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, to the northwestern city of Peshawar.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by ethnic Baluch separatists who want autonomy or independence. They often target passenger trains and security forces in Baluchistan.
Babar Ali Raza, a spokesman for Pakistan Railways, also said that there was a blast on the Jaafer Express passenger train, but experts were trying to determine the details. He said the dead and wounded are being transported to a nearby hospital.
Chichawatni is roughly 200 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province.
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
