At least 30 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a powerful explosion targeting a passenger train in southwestern Pakistan Sunday, officials said, amid a rise in terrorist attacks across the country.
The incident took place in Quetta, the provincial capital of the restive Balochistan province, where a powerful blast derailed a passenger train and damaged the track, adjacent residential quarters and vehicles.
“At least 30 people were killed and 103 were wounded in the incident,” Hameed Ullah Shah, a local police official, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). The number of dead is feared to increase.
He said that the nature of the blast was not yet known and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
A state of emergency has been declared in all public and private hospitals in the city, a provincial government spokesman said.
He said at least three coaches and the engine had derailed after the explosion. Security forces have cordoned off the area and a rescue operation was underway, he said.
Violence has surged in Pakistan recently and at least 25 terrorists were killed in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in an overnight operation, after terrorists killed 15 policemen in a car bombing on May 10.
Last year, a train carrying hundreds of security forces and their families was hijacked by a banned terrorist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). At least two dozen passengers and soldiers were killed in a daylong rescue battle.
BLA is the largest of several groups fighting for the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan. The group is behind the violence, particularly targeting billion-dollar Chinese infrastructure projects.
