'Suicide bomb' blast at Pakistan railway station: Death toll jumps to 24

A senior official said that about 100 people were present at the blast site, which is said to have occurred at a platform inside the railway station. Officials suspect it to be suicide bombing

A bomb blast at Pakistani’s Quetta Railway Station on Saturday has killed at least 24 people and injured another over 50, Dawn news reported. It is feared that the casualties may rise. 

Quetta is located in Balochistan province.

    Officials suspect the incident of being a case of suicide bombing, but an investigation was underway to find the exact cause of the blast. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the attack. 

  A senior official told Dawn that about 100 people were present at the blast site, which is said to have occurred at a platform inside the railway station. Police and security forces had been sent to the spot, the government said, noting that the bomb disposal squad was collecting evidence. 

 

At the time of the explosion, a train was about to leave from the platform for Peshawar, according to Dawn. The government has imposed an emergency in the nearby hospitals, where the injured are being treated.

Last week another blast near Quetta killed 8

Last week, another blast had occurred in Mastung town, located close to Quetta, in which five children were among the dead. The explosion, carried out in a remote-controlled setting, had occurred near a girl’s school and a hospital in the town while officials were engaged in a polio vaccination drive process. 

As many as eight people had died in the incident. According to Dawn, an improvised explosive device (IED) had been planted in a motorbike to carry out the attack, which could have been meant to discourage polio vaccinators from participating in the drive.

Pakistan, one of the only two countries where the polio virus is still endemic, struggles with curbing the crisis due to widespread misinformation among people about the vaccines. From apprehensions over the ingredients used in the vaccine to conspiracy theories, health workers have regularly faced violence in Pakistan for their attempts to indulge in vaccination drives.  

Militant organisations such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are said to be involved in derailing these campaigns.