At least 25 people killed, which includes 14 soldiers and about 50 people injured after a bomb blast at Quetta railway station in Balochistan, Pakistan on Saturday.
The Bomb blast took place when a train traveling from Quetta to Peshawar, Pakistan.
According to Geo news, the explosion occurred at the booking office of the railway station, just moments before the Jaffer Express was due to arrive at the platform.
At local time around 8.45 am the explosion took place.
Quetta’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations, Mohammad Baloch, said the incident “appears to be a suicide blast,” but it’s too early to confirm. He added that an investigation is ongoing to determine the exact nature of the blast.
SSP Mohammad Baloch told reporters that “around 100 people” were at the scene, according to footage he reviewed, as reported by Dawn News.
The senior police officer stated that the bomb exploded when passengers were waiting for a train from Quetta to the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Videos shared on social media seem to capture the moment of the explosion on Saturday morning, showing dozens of people on the platform.
Other footage shows the aftermath, with injured people and debris scattered across the station.
Earlier, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, the inspector general of police for Balochistan confirmed that the death toll from the blast reached 24.
He also stated that, “the target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” with many of the people are in critical condition.
Dr. Wasim Baid, a spokesman from hospital, told Reuters, “So far, 44 injured people have brought to the civil hospital.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing, stating that those responsible “will pay a very heavy price.” He also said that security forces dedicated to ending “the threat of terrorism.”
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group said that suicide bomber targeted military personnel at the railway station.
The attack “was carried out on a Pakistani army unit at Quetta railway station… after completing a course at the Infantry School,” the BLA said in a statement.
In August, the BLA took responsibility for coordinated attacks by dozens of attackers that killed at least 39 people, one of the deadliest incidents in the region.
