At least six killed and 19 wounded after two blasts hit passenger train in southwestern province, officials say.
by Al Jazeera
At least six people have been killed and 19 wounded after two explosions targeted a passenger train in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, according to officials.
Friday’s twin blasts hit the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express as it passed near the village of Mach, about 65km southeast of the provincial capital of Quetta.
“The explosions damaged two passenger carriages and killed six people besides wounding 19 others,” Imtiaz Ahmad, a senior local Pakistan Railways official, told AFP news agency, updating an earlier toll of three deaths.
The attack was claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army, according to AFP.
A spokesman for the group said the bombing had targeted “military personnel who travel to Rawalpindi by this train”.
Kashif Akhtar, a senior railways official, told Reuters that security forces foiled a similar attack on Thursday as an attacker laid explosives on a railway track near Quetta.
Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique denounced the bombing as “an act of terrorism” and said authorities were still trying to determine how the bomb was planted on the train.
For more than a decade, Balochistan has been the scene of low-intensity attacks by separatist Baloch groups who want autonomy or outright independence.
