QUETTA, Pakistan - Suspected tribal rebels fired on a passenger train in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan on Monday and then derailed the front section with a bomb, officials said. No casualties were reported so far in the derailment in mountainous Aab-e-Gom, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta, the city’s railways controller Javed Shah told AFP.Security forces who were riding on the express to the eastern city of Lahore traded fire with the gunmen after the attack, Shah said. “The train was going slow as it approached a station when it was attacked by gunfire,” Shah said. “It slowed down further but as it did there was a bomb blast on the track.”
The explosion derailed the diesel engine and the front two carriages of the Chiltan Express although they remained upright, the official said.