Karachi - Three Islamic militants blew themselves up on Friday when police laid siege to their hideout in the port city of Karachi where they were planning bombings ahead of Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, officials said. Meanwhile, three people were killed and 15 wounded when a train derailed after hitting a bomb planted on the railway track in eastern Pakistan.
On a tip-off, police raided a house occupied by the Islamic militants from a banned group, Lashkare Jhangvi, in the Baldia Town area of western Karachi, mostly inhabited by Pukhtoon labourers from the restive North West Frontier Province.
The rebels opened fire at the law enforcers with assault rifles and hurled five hand grenades, spreading terror in the city.
They detonated the explosives after running out of ammunition.
City police chief Wasim Ahmad said the terrorists were possibly planning to carry out suicide attacks during the busy Eid holiday shopping period.
The security forces later retrieved the body of a leading city transporter, Shaukat Afridi, from the rubble of the house destroyed in the blast.
Afridi, who had a supply contract with NATO forces in Afghanistan, was kidnapped around three months ago. He was shot in the head.
Pakistan has witnessed several suicide attacks in recent weeks believed to have been carried out by militants from the country's tribal areas.
Last Saturday the country witnessed its worst suicide bombing at the 5-star Marriott Hotel in the capital Islamabad, killing 53 and injuring over 250.
Separately, at least three people were killed when a passenger train hit an explosive device planted on the track in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Friday, officials said.
Two carriages of the train derailed in the act of sabotage which took place near the town of Hasilpur, some 400 kilometres south of the Punjab capital Lahore.
"Three passengers, including one woman and two children, died in the incident," said Nasir Ahmad Zaidi, general manger operations of the Pakistan Railway. Fifteen other passengers were also injured in the train derailment.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
