Baloch separatists killed 22 people on Saturday on a platform at the main station in Baluchistan, a bustling province in southwestern Pakistan, where travelers were massing. “The death toll now stands at 22 dead, including one woman,” said Shahid Rind, spokesperson for the regional government of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Earlier, police officials had reported 17 deaths, ensuring that this figure could still increase. The provincial hospital still claimed to be receiving bodies and injured people more than an hour after the explosion. This toll is particularly high in Balochistan where armed attacks and attacks are frequent.
On Saturday, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), one of the main Baloch separatist groups, claimed responsibility for the railway station blast. In a statement, the BLA claims 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.
Police say they are working to determine the modus operandi used for this explosion. “At first, it seemed to us that an explosive had been planted, hidden in abandoned luggage, but now we believe it was a suicide attack,” said Mohammed Baloch, a police official. local, speaking to journalists on site. Doctor Wasim Baig, spokesperson for the Sandeman regional hospital in Quetta, for his part reported having received “46 injured”.
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. On the paved platform, the huge sheet metal shelter supposed to protect travelers from the sun or rain was blown away.
Firefighters, rescuers and passengers are busy moving the bundles abandoned by travelers under the guard of members of the security forces, automatic rifles in hand. Pools of blood and ripped backpacks from which tattered clothes emerge bear witness to the violence of the explosion.
