M A I N   N E W S

12 killed in Pak train blast

ISLAMABAD, July 16 (PTI, Reuters) —At least 12 passengers, including three women and four children, were killed and 35 injured when a bomb exploded in a train near the Pakistani city of Hyderabad in southern Sindh province this morning, witnesses said.

The device, placed in the last compartment of the Karachi-bound Mehran Express, went off with a big bang near Hyderabad railway station, 160 km north of Karachi.

Four persons were killed on the spot while eight others died in a local hospital.

The injured, some of them in serious condition, were rushed to hospitals.

Officials fear the toll may rise because of the critical condition of several passengers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. The army has cordoned off the area and launched rescue operations in which they are being assisted by locals.

A railway official at Hyderabad station told Reuters that the bomb was a time device and was placed beneath a seat in the seventh, overcrowded coach.

“The bogey has a capacity of 22 persons and the number of injured shows that there were too many people,” he said.

The train had nine coaches. Officials earlier said the bomb had been placed in the rear coach.

The seventh coach was disconnected and the train left for Karachi two hours after the early morning explosion.

There have been more than 12 bomb blasts in Pakistan this year, several of them in Sindh which has a history of political and ethnic violence.