MULTAN, Feb 5: Authorities are investigating a possible link between two deadly train crashes in eastern Pakistan that officials have blamed on sabotage, police said on Sunday.

“There is a possibility that the same group may be doing this to create unrest in the country,” said Shafi Mughal, a senior police officer for the Pakistan Railways.

Mughal’s comments came a day after 11 cars of a 14-carriage express train derailed in Kalanch Wala village, about 160 km west of the city of Multan, leaving one woman dead and 27 other people injured.

A week ago four people were killed and more than 40 injured when several cars of another passenger train derailed and fell into a ravine near Domeli, another village in the eastern province of Punjab.

Railway officials have alleged that tracks on both trains’ routes had been deliberately damaged.

“The two incidents are similar. There is a possibility that the same group may be doing these acts,” Mughal said He did not name any group, but said the perpetrators “want to scare the people and create unrest”.

Police have arrested four scrap metal dealers suspected of cutting railway tracks near Domeli.—AP