QUETTA, Pakistan — At least 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured Saturday in a bomb explosion at a train station in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police and other officials said.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which is facing an increase in attacks by ethnic separatist militants, something that has caused concern about the security of projects aimed at exploiting the province’s mineral resources.
Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mouzzam Jah Ansari said 24 people have died so far in the blast at the railway station, which is usually busy early in the day when the blast occurred.
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“The target was Army personnel from the Infantry School,” he said. Many of the injured are in critical condition.
Quetta Commissioner Hamza Shafqat said 16 soldiers were among the dead.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to Reuters.
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The group wants independence for Balochistan, which has around 15 million inhabitants and borders Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The Balochistan Liberation Army is the largest among several ethnic insurgent groups fighting the government, saying Islamabad unfairly exploits the province’s rich mineral and natural gas resources.
“So far, 44 injured people have been taken to the civil hospital,” Wasim Baig, a spokesman for the facility, told Reuters.
The senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said that the explosion was apparently the action of a suicide bomber, and that investigations have already begun to obtain more information.
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“The explosion occurred inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to depart,” Baloch said.
In August, at least 73 people died in Balochistan in attacks by separatist militants on police stations, railway lines and highways.
August’s attacks were the biggest in years by militants who have fought for decades for independence in the province, which is home to major Chinese-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.
