Foreign
24 Killed, 70 Injured in Pakistan As Blast Hits Shuttle Train
At least 24 people are reportedly killed while around 70 others are injured when a bomb blast hit a shuttle train carrying Pakistani security personnel and their families.
The incident occured in the southwestern province of Balochistan on Sunday, according to three provincial government and security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to the media. It is a latest major attack claimed by separatist militants.
The shuttle service had primarily been transporting service personnel and their families who had been returning home for Eid. The train was travelling through Chaman Phatak station in Quetta, the capital of the western Balochistan region, on Sunday morning.
The attack was the latest in a series of strikes on trains, security forces and infrastructure in the mineral-rich province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, where Pakistan has launched counterinsurgency operations after some of the deadliest violence in years.
In a statement to media, the separatist militant group Baloch Liberation Army, BLA, said it carried out the attack adding that it is a suicide bombing. This could not be independently verified by Capital Times News.
Railway officials told BBC Urdu that three coaches and the engine were derailed while two were overturned.
Naseer Ahmed, a local resident, told the BBC, “The train was moving and there were passengers on board when the explosion occurred,”
Eyewitnesses said a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into the train, causing the explosion.
A police officer and civil administration official in Balochistan confirmed to BBC Urdu that 20 people had been killed, with fears the death toll could rise. Officials said three soldiers were among the dead.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, saying “such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan”.
“The entire nation stands in solidarity with the people of Balochistan in this hour of grief,” he added.
