At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 others injured after a bomb blast struck a train carrying Pakistani security personnel and their families in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Sunday.
The explosion occurred near the Chaman Pattak signal area as the train was travelling from Quetta’s cantonment area to connect with the Jaffar Express long-distance service.
Officials said an explosives-laden vehicle hit one of the train’s carriages, triggering a powerful blast that derailed the engine and multiple coaches.
Two overturned carriages caught fire, sending thick black smoke into the sky and damaging nearby residential buildings and vehicles.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist group active in the province, claimed responsibility for the attack and described it as a suicide bombing.
Emergency services and security personnel rushed to the site after the blast, while hospitals across Quetta declared a state of emergency.
Doctors and medical staff were instructed to remain on duty as injured passengers and residents from nearby apartment buildings were brought in for treatment.
Images from the scene showed burnt vehicles, twisted metal debris and heavily damaged buildings near the railway track.
Authorities cordoned off the area as rescue and recovery operations continued into the evening.
A provincial official said some of those killed were residents living close to the railway line where the explosion occurred.
The attack marked the latest in a series of assaults targeting trains, security forces and infrastructure in Balochistan, a mineral-rich province bordering Iran and Afghanistan.
Pakistan has intensified counterinsurgency operations in the region following several deadly attacks in recent months.
In March, BLA militants hijacked the Jaffar Express train and took hundreds of passengers hostage before Pakistani forces ended the standoff.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous bomb explosion”.
“Such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan,” Sharif said in a statement posted on X.
The separatist violence has also increasingly targeted projects linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a major infrastructure initiative connecting China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar port.