Islamabad, May 24 (EFE).- At least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured on Sunday after a powerful explosion struck a passenger train near railway tracks in Quetta, western Pakistan, authorities said, as the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for what it described as a suicide-style attack targeting security personnel.
The explosion occurred near the Chaman Phatak railway crossing in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, about 125 km (78 miles) from the Afghan border.
“A shuttle train was hit by a blast near Chaman Phatak,” Muhammad Ramzan, a police officer at the Quetta police control room, told EFE, adding that the train had departed from Quetta Cantonment, a military residential area.
“So far, 30 passengers have been killed and 102 injured,” another police officer, Hameed Ali Shah, told EFE, adding that authorities were still determining the exact nature of the blast.
According to police, the intensity of the explosion derailed the locomotive and three coaches, two of which overturned. The blast wave also damaged around a dozen nearby vehicles and shattered windows in adjoining buildings.
A security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told EFE that members of the security forces were among the dead. Initial reports suggested that a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into one of the train’s coaches, triggering the explosion.
Several soldiers were reportedly traveling with their families ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holidays.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the largest separatist group operating in the province, claimed responsibility for the attack.
“This morning, the Majeed Brigade, the fidayee (self-sacrificing) unit of the Baloch Liberation Army, targeted a train transporting personnel of the occupying forces from Quetta Cantt in a highly organized fidayee attack,” BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement.
“The Baloch Liberation Army accepts full responsibility for this operation,” he added.
Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Hanif Abbasi condemned the attack, describing it as a “cowardly act of terrorism” and saying such incidents would not weaken the country’s resolve against militancy.
The attack comes just over a year after BLA militants hijacked the Jaffar Express in the Bolan district of Balochistan after blowing up railway tracks near a tunnel. The train, carrying more than 400 passengers, was seized by insurgents before Pakistani security forces ended the siege the following day.
According to the Pakistani Army, all 33 attackers were killed in the operation. The militants killed 26 people, including 18 military personnel, three railway employees, and five civilians, while five security personnel also died during the rescue operation.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest yet least developed province, has been the scene of a decades-long separatist insurgency. Ethnic Baloch militant groups accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s vast natural gas and mineral resources without adequately benefiting the local population, which suffers from high poverty and underdevelopment.
Pakistan has also witnessed increasing violence by Islamist militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, which is ideologically aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban-led government in Kabul of allowing both TTP militants and Baloch separatists to use Afghan territory as a sanctuary to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, allegations that Afghan authorities deny. EFE
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