An explosion on a railway line in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, derailed a train on Sunday, killing dozens and injuring many others, officials said. A senior official speaking to AFP said the train was carrying military personnel and their family members and had been travelling from Quetta toward Peshawar. Some passengers were reportedly en route to a cantonment area to mark Eid, which begins Tuesday.
Authorities put the immediate death toll at least 24, with more than 50 people wounded. Local reporting cited by the Balochistan Post gave a higher figure of about 30 dead and roughly 70 injured. A large fire erupted after the blast, witnesses said, and heavy gunfire was also heard in the aftermath. Images and video from the scene showed carriages toppled onto their sides while survivors and rescuers climbed over wreckage searching for victims.
Babar Yousafzai, a special assistant in the provincial home department, said security forces and rescue teams were rapidly deployed and that hospitals in Quetta were placed on emergency footing as authorities investigated the cause of the explosion.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility, saying a subunit known as the Majeed Brigade carried out what it described as a “fidayee”—a suicide—attack. Balochistan, a resource-rich region and an important part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, has long seen insurgent violence from separatist groups who accuse Islamabad of exploiting local resources without delivering benefits to the province’s population.