By Staff Reporter
At least 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, police and other officials told Reuters.
Inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, said 24 people have died from the blast so far.
“The target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” he said, with many of the injured in critical condition.
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“So far, 44 injured people have been brought to civil hospital,” Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, told Reuters.
Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were underway for more information.
“The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination,” Baloch said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast at Quetta’s main railway station, which is usually busy early in the day.
In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan province after militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways.
The assaults in August were the most widespread in years by militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.
