Bodies were seen scattered across the platform
A suspected suicide blast by an ethnic militant group rocked a crowded railway station in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan region this morning, killing 25 people and injuring 46 others. The victims included at least 14 soldiers, the police said. CCTV footage showed dozens of people waiting on the platform when the blast ripped through Quetta’s main railway station.
Bodies were seen scattered across the platform and the roof was blown away. There was blood everywhere as rescue workers went through abandoned luggage to find survivors.
The blast occurred when the Jaffer express was about to depart for Peshawar, said a senior police official, adding that it seemed to be a suicide blast. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic militant group in the region, has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Reports suggest the explosion occurred at the railway station’s booking office. Law enforcement teams immediately secured the area and took the injured to the civil hospital in Quetta, said the provincial government spokesperson Shahid Rind.
Officials said at least 46 injured were brought to the hospital in the aftermath of the blast. The hospital declared an emergency and called additional staff to attend the injured.
“The blast targeted army personnel from the Infantry School,” said Mouzzam Jah Ansari, the Inspector General of Police in Balochistan.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has ordered an immediate probe and condemned the attack as “a horrific act” that targeted innocent civilians. “The terrorists’ target now are innocent people, labourers, children, and women. Those targeting innocent people do not deserve mercy,” Dawn quoted him as saying.
The blast comes as Pakistan grapples with a rise in terror attacks by ethnic militant groups. Nearly three months ago, a wave of attacks on police stations and highways in Balochistan claimed at least 73 lives.
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