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A suspected suicide blast by an ethnic militant group rocked a crowded railway station in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan region this morning, killing at least 24 people and injuring 46 others. CCTV footage showed dozens of people waiting on the platform when the blast ripped through Quetta’s main railway station. Bodies were later seen scattered across the platform and the roof was blown away.
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, confirming the 24 deaths.
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.
