Suicide attack at Pakistan train station; 26 dead and 62 injured

Quetta. A suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 26 people — including soldiers and railway staff — and wounding about 62, officials said.

The attack occurred as nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province, said Hamza Shafqaat, a senior government administrator.

Police said the dead included about a dozen soldiers and six railway employees.

A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying the suicide bomber’s target was soldiers present at the train station. The outlawed ELB has waged a long-running insurgency seeking to gain the province’s independence from Islamabad.

Television images showed the shattered steel structure of the platform roof and a destroyed tea stall. There were suitcases scattered around the place.

Ayesha Faiz, a Quetta police officer, said some of the seriously injured passengers died in a hospital, increasing the death toll.

Shahid Rind, a government spokesman, said all the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement, saying that those who orchestrated it “will pay a very high price for it,” adding that security forces are determined to eliminate “the menace of terrorism.”

The attack occurred just over a week after a powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers who had been assigned to protect polio vaccination workers in Balochistan. The blast killed nine people, including five children who were nearby.

In August, the ELB carried out several coordinated attacks against passenger buses, police and security forces across the province, killing more than 50 people, mostly civilians.

Rich in oil and minerals, Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, but also its least populated. It is also a place where the country’s Baloch ethnic minority is concentrated, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. In addition to separatist groups, there are also Islamic militants in the province.

The ELB frequently attacks security forces and foreigners, especially Chinese citizens in Pakistan working on Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects. The group often demands that all Chinese-funded projects be stopped and that workers leave Pakistan to avoid further attacks.

Last month, the ELB claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy carrying Chinese nationals outside Karachi airport, killing two of them. Beijing has since asked Pakistan to ensure the safety of its citizens working on various projects in Balochistan and other parts of the country.