26 killed, 50 injured in suicide bombing in Pakistan  

A view of Quetta Railway Station after suicide bombing ( Photo courtesy Social Media)

By Nasir Aijaz
The AsiaN Representative

QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN: A suicide bombing at the Quetta Railway Station on Saturday morning (Nov. 9, 2024) has resulted in the deaths of at least 26 people, including 14 military personnel, and injuries to more than 50.

According to the police, the attack took place at the platform as passengers gathered for the departure of the Jafar Express, scheduled to leave for Peshawar at 9:00am. The blast caused huge losses as the platform was crowded with passengers, causing widespread panic.

Emergency services were immediately dispatched, and the wounded were rushed to the Civil Hospital in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan province, where an emergency was declared.

Dr. Abdul Sattar, Medical Superintendent at Civil Hospital, confirmed that the casualties included both men and women with several in critical condition. “Seven injured persons are in critical condition,” he said. .

“Among the injured, 46 were brought to Civil Hospital, where they are receiving immediate medical attention,” a hospital spokesperson stated.

The explosion, which appeared to be a suicide attack, also injured two railway police officers, Head Constables Ghulam Rasool Jamali and Bhoral Khan, according to SSP Operations Muhammad Baloch.

Commissioner of Quetta Hamza Shafqaat viewed that the bombing was likely carried out by a suicide bomber who bypassed the station’s walk-through gates.

“The attacker entered through the open entry points of the station,” the Commissioner said, adding that authorities had initiated snap-checking in various parts of the city and that police and Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, had been deployed for increased security.

Pakistan Railways had resumed train services between Quetta and Peshawar on October 11, following a suspension of over six weeks. The suspension had been enforced after a blast on August 26 destroyed a crucial railway bridge between Kolpur and Mach, an attack claimed by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as part of a series of coordinated assaults across the province.

Balochistan, the southwest province, and Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, the northwest province of the South Asian country, are in the grip of terrorism, where a large number of civilians and military personnel have been killed in terrorist attacks. Pakistan has seen a surge in terror attacks in recent years, particularly in these two provinces.

On October 11, 2024, gunmen killed at least 20 people at a coal mine in Balochistan province. The attackers stormed the workers’ accommodation at a Coal Company mines in the province’s Duki district, in the early morning hours, rounded the men up and opened fire.

Earlier, on August 26, the media and officials reported that at least 74 people, including 21 terrorists and 14 security personnel, were killed in multiple clashes and attacks that lasted several hours in southwest and northwest Pakistani provinces.

In a heinous act in the same month, militants killed 23 passengers in Balochistan after forcing them to disembark from several vehicles. The incident occurred near the Musakhel district, where heavily armed militants blocked a key road, stopped several vehicles, and offloaded passengers before spraying them with bullets. According to police, the attackers set at least 10 vehicles on fire before fleeing.

Shahid Rind, a Balochistan government spokesperson, told reporters that the terrorists searched buses and trucks and checked the passengers’ identities before killing them. The deceased people are said to be from the northeastern Punjab province.

Meanwhile, another five people were killed in a night-long clash between militants and police on the National Highway in Qalat district. Separately, local police found four bullet-riddled bodies in the mountains of Bolan district. Armed assailants also stormed and took control of a police station in the province’s Mastung district for several hours. They set on fire the record and several vehicles that were parked inside the police station.

A bomb blast in the Bolan district also destroyed a key railway bridge, killing two people and halting rail traffic between Balochistan and other provinces.

Balochistan Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist group, in a statement to local media, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group has long targeted security forces and non-Baloch residents of the province.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province, at least four people were killed and several injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Rizmak town of North Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan.

Mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but poorest province. Security forces have long faced a low-intensity rebellion from Baloch separatists, who claim the province has been denied major developments.

The province is also a key route for the $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which aims to connect China’s strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province with Balochistan’s Gwadar port via a network of roads, railways, and pipelines for cargo, oil, and gas transportation.

The outlawed BLA had also been targeting the Chinese engineers and other professions working at different projects. In October, two Chinese were killed in a bomb attack near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the capital city of southern Sindh province.