A bomb placed by an ethnic separatist group has derailed a train in southwest Pakistan, killing eight people, including three children.
A further 20 people were wounded by the blast on Sunday in Kashmor district. The bombing caused several train cars to run off the track, said police official Mohammad Azeem.
Kashmor is in Sindh province but adjoins insurgency-hit Baluchistan. One of several ethnic Baluch separatist groups operating in the resource-rich province, the Baluch Republican Army, claimed responsibility. Al-Qaeda-linked militants also have a presence there.
The group's spokesman, Sarbaz Baluch, said in a phone call to The Associated Press from an undisclosed location that the attack was a reaction to what he alleged were killings in Baluchistan's Dera Bugti region by Pakistani paramilitaries.
The group also blew up three gas pipelines last week, suspending supplies to millions of household for two days.
Local Pakistani TV channels showed footage of several badly damaged train cars lying off the track.
Pakistani Railways Minister Saad Rafiq said officials were working to reopen the track at earliest.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed a police officer guarding a polio vaccination drive team in the outskirts of northwestern city of Peshawar.
Police official Ibrahim Khan said another officer was wounded in the attack during the weekly anti-polio campaign in the Budhni area.
