Two bombs exploded aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, sparking a fire that killed at least 66 passengers today, an apparent attempt to derail a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.
One person was detained in connection with the midnight blasts on the train about 80 km (50 miles) north of New Delhi, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was quoted as saying.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the attack would not derail peace efforts and Indian financial markets shrugged off the bombings, with the main stock index rising slightly.
"We will not allow elements which want to sabotage the ongoing peace process to succeed in their nefarious designs," Musharraf said in a statement.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, due in New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders to push forward the slow-moving peace process, said his trip would go ahead.
Most of the victims were Pakistanis, but some Indians and three railway policemen died in the attack, officials said.
Two unexploded suitcase bombs were also found on the train. Inside one, an electronic timer encased in clear plastic was packed next to more than a dozen plastic bottles containing a cocktail of fuel oils and chemicals.
Police said that while the explosions were small, they were intended to cause fires on at least four of the train's coaches.
"It's sabotage -- it's an act of terrorism like the one in Mumbai," Yadav told reporters, referring to serial bomb blasts in India 's commercial capital last July that killed 186 people.
Press Trust of India quoted him as saying that one person who was in one of the two coaches that caught fire had been detained.
Like all Indian trains, most of the windows in the lower class compartments were barred with metal rods, meaning many people were trapped inside the carriages.
Fellow passengers, officials and local villagers near the town of Deewana fought through choking smoke to pull victims out of doors and emergency exit windows.
Amid the concern among relatives thronging Old Delhi station, there was anger over the lack of security that allowed four large suitcases packed with explosives to be placed on a train.
"There were so many people here," said 26-year-old Mohammed Raziuddin, holding a photograph of the Pakistani brother he had seen off at the station earlier. "But there was no checking and no security ... there was no discipline."