At least 26 people were killed and more than 60 injured in a bomb blast on Saturday at a railway station in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, police and other officials said.
Police said about a dozen soldiers and six railway employees were among the dead.
The bomb exploded when nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, said senior police officer Mohammad Baloch.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which is grappling with a surge in strikes by separatist ethnic militants that has raised security concerns for projects aiming to develop the province’s untapped mineral resources.
“The target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” Inspector general of police for Balochistan Mouzzam Jah Ansari said said, with many of the injured in critical condition.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan, a province of about 15 million people that borders Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The BLA is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the government, saying it unfairly exploits the province’s rich gas and mineral resources.
Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were under way 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.
In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan after separatist 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 for the province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine. – Reuters/AP