The Yafa Express, which has about 400 passengers on nine bogies, fired fire on the way from Quetta in the southwestern province of Pakistan to Peshawar in Kybar Pakhtunkhwa, a railway official said.
In a statement, the Baroque Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack and took hostages from trains that included security forces.
No state government or railroad officials confirmed that the hostages had been taken away.
Security forces have arrived at the location of the incident in Mushkaf area of Balochistan’s Bolan district, railway officials said.
The Balochistan government has imposed emergency measures and all agencies are mobilised to deal with the situation, said Shahid Lind, a government spokesman.
Decades of rebellion in Balochistan by separatist extremist groups have led to frequent attacks on the interests of the government, the army and China in the region, impending demands for the sharing of mineral-rich resources.
The BLA is seeking Balochistan’s independence. It is the largest of several ethnic rebellion groups that have fought against South Asian governments for decades, saying they are unfairly utilizing Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.
MNA/