QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including soldiers and railway staff, and wounding about 50 others, some critically, officials said. The attack happened when nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, according to Hamza Shafqaat, a senior government administrator. TV footage showed the steel structure of the platform’s roof blown apart and a destroyed tea stall.
Luggage was strewn everywhere. Police said about a dozen soldiers and six railway employees were among the dead at the station, where a walk-through gate has been installed to check whether anyone is carrying explosives but there are multiple other entrances into the station without such security. When asked about security, Shafqaat told reporters that “it is usually very difficult to stop such suicide attacks.
” Shahhid Nawaz, who is the in-charge of security at Quetta's train station, insisted that there was no breach of security, as the attacker was disguised as a passenger and he blew himself up among people. A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed the attack in a statement, saying a suicide bomber targeted troops present at the railway station. The outlawed BLA has long waged an insurgency seeking independence from Islamabad.
A senior superintendent of police operations, M.