Quetta, Nov 9 (IANS ) At least 24 people have been killed in Pakistan while over 50 others are injured at the Quetta Railway Station after a suspected suicide bomber exploded when passengers were gathering for the departure of a train to Peshawar.
“Around 100 people were present at the railway station when the blast occurred. Till now, 24 people have been confirmed dead while over 50 are injured. The blast occurred on the platform as passengers gathered for the departure of Jaffar Express. The train was to depart from Quetta to Peshawar,” said Quetta Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Mohammad Baloch.
The injured have been taken to Civil Hospital Quetta, while the rescue and law enforcement teams reached the blast site and cordoned off the area.
An emergency has been declared at the hospital in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta. The Medical Superintendent at the Civil Hospital said that the dead included women and children.
“46 wounded were brought to the hospital for urgent treatment. Many of the injured are in critical condition,” said the Medical Superintendent.
Police said that the blast may have been a suicide bombing as the explosion happened at the time when a high number of passengers were gathering at the platform to board the train to Peshawar at 9 a.m.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti termed the tragic incident as a “horrific act targeting innocent civilians,” condemning the incident and ordering an immediate inquiry and investigation.
“Terrorists are increasingly targeting ordinary civilians, labourers, women and children. Those responsible would be pursued relentlessly,” said Chief Minister Balochisan Sarfaraz Bugti.
Balochistan has been under an intensified attack by militants, who have been targeting security forces, locals and people from other ethnicities in a series of deadly blasts, posing a major threat of unrest and chaos spread across Pakistan’s most vulnerable province hit by terror.
A few days back, at least five children were among the nine people killed, along with 17 others injured when a roadside bomb targeting a vehicle of security forces who were going for security of polio health workers, exploded in Mastung district of Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces have been the epicentre of violence, terror and unrest as militant groups continue to carry out multiple attacks and claim lives of security personnel and other civilians including women and children.
Pakistan claims that the unrest in both provinces is due to the support and facilitation these groups enjoy from across the border in Afghanistan, and calls on the Afghan Taliban to ensure a crackdown against these groups instead of harbouring them to spread unrest and terror across the border.