Bomb explodes near Quetta railway track, wounding over two dozen
Hızlı Bakış
- A powerful bomb exploded near a railway track in Quetta, Pakistan, as a passenger train passed, wounding over 30 people.
- The blast overturned two train cars, causing them to catch fire, and damaged nearby buildings and vehicles.
- Authorities are investigating the incident.
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The attack occurred in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, a region with a long-standing low-level insurgency. Separatist groups, including the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), demand independence and accuse the Pakistani government of exploiting the province's natural resources.
A powerful bomb exploded near a railway track as a train carrying passengers passed through the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday, wounding more than two dozen people, officials said.
The force of the explosion caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, sending thick black smoke into the air, according to footage shared online.
The attack happened in an area where security forces are usually stationed, badly damaging several nearby buildings and smashing vehicles parked along the road, according to witnesses and images circulating on social media.
Doctors at local hospitals said they had received more than 30 wounded people, several of them in critical condition.
Balochistan government official Babar Yousafzai said authorities were still investigating the blast, but gave no further details.
Quetta is the capital of insurgency-hit Balochistan province.
The oil- and mineral-rich province has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups such as the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army demanding independence from Pakistan’s central government.
The BLA and fellow insurgent groups accuse Pakistan’s federal government of unfairly exploiting the natural resources like oil and minerals found in Balochistan, the country’s largest but least populous province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
They claim that Pakistan forcibly integrated the province after pressuring the Khanate of Kalat, which governed the region during British rule, to sign a treaty of accession in 1948.
The BLA has a long history of targeting civilians and security forces in the province, which is home to nine million ethnic Baloch people. The group routinely launches attacks on natural resource extraction projects as the mountainous region serves as a haven for the insurgents.
The BLA took responsibility for an attack near the Karachi airport that killed two Chinese citizens in 2024. It also sent women suicide bombers to target Chinese nationals at a university in the coastal city, apparently in protest against the Chinese operating gold and copper mines in Balochistan.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Açık Sorular
- Who is responsible for the bombing?
- What specific motive did the attackers have?
- What is the Pakistani government's immediate response?
- Will this attack lead to increased security measures in Balochistan?
