(New report, claim, details, TV available)
A bomb exploded Saturday morning at the Quetta train station in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 24 people and injuring 40, authorities said.
The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a pro-independence group, in a statement sent by email to Reuters.
Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan, a vast province in southwest Pakistan that has been facing a separatist insurgency for decades and is close to the jihadist theaters of operation in the northwest.
The BLA is the most powerful of the various armed groups fighting for the independence of this poor province of 15 million inhabitants by accusing the central power of monopolizing local gas and mineral wealth.
The explosion, apparently set off by a suicide bomber, occurred during the morning rush hour inside the station as the Peshawar-bound express was about to depart, said Muhammad Baloch, a police officer. police.
“The target was military personnel from the infantry school,” said Balochistan police chief Mouzzam Jah Ansari.
Many of the injured are in critical condition, he said.
Last August, a series of separatist attacks against police stations, railway lines and roads left at least 73 dead.
(Saleem Ahmed in Quetta and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; French version Camille Raynaud and Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
