At least 21 people have died and 30 others are injured after a powerful explosion at a train station in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, police have said.
The blast happened on a platform at the station in the city of Quetta at about 9 a.m., according to Senior Superintendent Muhammad Baloch. The Baloch Liberation Army , a separatist militant group active in the region, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement seen by CNN. Senior Superintendent Baloch indicated that the explosion appeared to be a suicide attack. “The explosion happened when a large number of passengers were present on the platform,” he said.
The province’s Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has ordered an inquiry into the incident. In a statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack. An insurgency in Balochistan has been running for decades but has gained traction in recent years since the province’s deep-water Gwadar port was leased to China, the jewel in the crown of Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure push in Pakistan.
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