Quetta. At least 24 people were killed and 46 injured in a suicide blast at Quetta railway station. Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces witnessed a sharp increase in terrorism-related incidents in the last one year. The incident occurred a week after a bomb blast near a girls’ school and hospital in Balochistan’s Mastung district, killing eight people, including five children. According to The Dawn report, Quetta Divisional Commissioner Hamza Shafqat confirmed the death toll. He said that the incident was a suicide blast. According to the report, banned militant group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the blast. Hamza Shafqat said that the administration is writing a letter to the railway officials to suspend the train services. Pakistan Railways had earlier announced the restoration of train services between Quetta and Peshawar from October 11 after suspension for more than one and a half months.
Rail services were suspended across the country on 26 August, when a major railway bridge between Kolpur and Mach was destroyed in a blast by the BLA. According to media reports, Shafqat appealed to the public to donate blood for the injured. Earlier, Quetta’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations, Mohammad Baloch, said that as per the footage seen by him, ‘around 100 people’ were present at the spot. He said that at the time of the blast, the Jafar Express train was ready to depart from the platform for Peshawar. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the incident, saying it was a ‘series of targeting of innocent people’. In a statement he said, “Innocent people, labourers, children and women are now the target of terrorists. People who target innocent people do not deserve mercy. According to the statement, the Chief Minister has ordered an investigation into the blast.