Baloch separatists killed 25 people on Saturday on a platform at the main station in Balochistan, a bustling province in the south-west of Pakistan, where travelers were massing. Fourteen soldiers were among the victims.
“Fourteen members of the army are among the 25 confirmed deaths,” Mohammed Baloch, a local police official, told journalists in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
The provincial hospital still claimed to be receiving bodies and injured people more than an hour after the explosion.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), one of the main Baloch separatist groups, claimed responsibility for the explosion which blew out the huge tin shelter supposed to protect travelers from the sun or rain at the Quetta railway station.
Target army
The toll is particularly high in Balochistan where armed attacks and attacks are frequent. In a statement, the BLA said that one of its brigades targeted “a unit of the Pakistani army which was returning to Punjab via the railway station after training at the infantry school”.
The BLA regularly claims deadly attacks against law enforcement and Pakistanis from other provinces. He particularly attacks the Punjabis who constitute the largest of Pakistan’s six main ethnic groups and are seen as dominating the ranks of the army, engaged in the battle against the separatists.
At the end of August, he claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks by dozens of attackers that left at least 39 dead, one of the worst tolls in this region.
Trail of the suicide bomber
The police say they are working to determine the mode of operation used for this explosion. “At first it seemed to us that an explosive had been planted, hidden in abandoned luggage, but now we think it was a suicide attack,” said police officer Mohammed Baloch.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced “terrorists who attack innocent people”, assuring that they would “pay a high price” after this attack.
The explosion took place around 8:45 a.m. at the central railway station in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, where passengers were waiting on a platform. The official APP agency reports that two trains were preparing to leave when the explosion took place, near a ticket sales counter.
Resource control
The largest province in Pakistan, Balochistan is also the poorest province in Pakistan, despite its significant gas and mining resources, over which separatists claim control.
Many of the extraction projects are financed and operated by foreign countries, notably neighboring China, which armed separatist factions regularly target, accusing them of hoarding wealth without sharing it with the local population.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
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