A bomb planted on a railway track hit a passenger train in Kashmor on Sunday, killing eight people and wounding 20, officials said. Three of the dead were children and another 20 people were wounded by the blast, which caused several train cars to run off the track, said police official Mohammad Azeem.

The Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility. The group's spokesman, Sarbaz Baloch, 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 Balochistan's Dera Bugti region by paramilitaries. The group also blew up three gas pipelines last week, suspending supplies to millions of household for two days. Railways Minister Saad Rafiq said officials were working to reopen the track at earliest.

It was the second bombing of a passenger train in a month, Railways Minister Saad Rafiq said. Three people died in a similar attack on January 17.

Copyright Associated Press, 2014

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2014