Pakistan suspends railway services in the country's southwest after
deadly train station bombing
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[November 11, 2024]
By ABDUL SATTAR
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's railways suspended all train services
on Monday to and from a restive southwestern province where a suicide
bombing at a train station over the weekend killed 26 people, including
soldiers and railway staff.
The train services would be suspended for four days for security
reasons, according to a statement from Pakistan Railways.
The attack, claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army struck the
station in the city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on
Saturday. At lest 62 people were also wounded in the bombing, officials
said.
The provincial government also declared a three-day mourning period in
solidarity with the families of the victims and said that security has
been stepped up and vowed to hit back “with full force” against the
separatists, according to Sarfraz Bugti, the province's chief minister.
Bugti spoke after meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who
traveled to Quetta on Sunday to be briefed about the situation. Naqvi's
office said in a statement that authorities would “take decisive steps
to crush the terrorists" and support the local Balochistan government in
dealing with the "scourge of terrorism.”
Train services are a major part of Balochistan's economy — hundreds of
people travel to and from Quetta to other parts of the country every
day. Trains also transport food and other items.
Saturday's attack took place when about 100 passengers were waiting for
a train to leave the Quetta station for the garrison city of Rawalpindi,
police had said. In its claim of responsibility, the separatist BLA said
it targeted Pakistani troops.
The attack was the deadliest since August, when separatists killed more
than 50 people in multiple coordinated attacks on passengers buses,
police and security forces across Balochistan.
The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also
least populated province. It is a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch
minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by
the central government.
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Security officials examine the site of a bomb explosion at railway
station in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024.
(AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
Balochistan has for years been the scene of a long-running
insurgency, with several separatist groups staging attacks,
targeting mainly security forces in their quest for independence.
The province also has an array of militant groups that are active
there.
The separatists also target Chinese nationals working in Pakistan as
part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, an
initiative that has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports
around the world and is a major part of China's push to play a
larger role in global affairs
Last month, a suicide bomber dispatched by the BLA targeted a convoy
with Chinese nationals outside the country’s largest airport in the
port city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, killing two
Chinese workers and wounding eight people.
Authorities subsequently claimed they arrested the mastermind of
that Oct. 6 attack in a raid in Balochistan.
Ziaul Hassan, the interior minister in southern Sindh province, told
reporters on Monday that police arrested also three other suspects,
including a woman, over their direct involvement in the Karachi
attack.
He identified the alleged mastermind only as Javed, without
explaining if that was a real name, a pseudonym or why he wasn't
giving a full name. Hassan also said more arrests were planned and
that police were assisted by security camera footage in their
investigation.
According to the minister, the car used in the Oct. 6 attack was
brought to the city from Balochistan province.
Hassan said an investigation was still underway over last week's
shooting attack that wounded two Chinese workers at a textile mill
in Karachi.
___
Associated Press writer Muhammad Farooq in Karachi, Pakistan,
contributed to this report.
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