Karachi: At least 24 people are feared dead and many injured after a powerful explosion ripped through a shuttle train in Pakistan’s Balochistan province Sunday, officials said.
The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the blast in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan province.
The shuttle train was heading from Quetta Cantonment to the city railway station when it was targeted near Chaman Phatak, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.
When contacted, a senior police official put the death toll at 24 but didn’t rule out a further increase in the toll. The explosion was very powerful when it hit the moving shuttle train, he said.
At least two doctors at two separate hospitals in Quetta, where the dead bodies and injured were taken, confirmed 20 bodies were in the mortuary.
I can’t say anything officially, but we have 20 bodies at the Civil Hospital and Bolan Medical College Hospital, one of the doctors, who didn’t want to be named, said.
Both doctors confirmed over 50 persons, including women and children, were under treatment at the two hospitals.
They also said some bodies and a few injured were taken to the Quetta district hospital.
A BLA spokesperson said the attack was carried out as the train was transporting military personnel from the cantonment area. Shahid Rind, spokesperson for the Balochistan provincial government, confirmed the death toll had increased from his previous briefing when he put the figure at 14. We will be giving another media briefing soon, but I can say casualties have increased, Rind said on the telephone.
Earlier, the government said the dead included three personnel of the Frontier Corps.
Pakistan’s Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi has said there were civilian passengers in the shuttle train and the explosion hit the engine and three coaches.
Television channels showed eyewitnesses claiming that they saw an explosive-laden minivan slam into the shuttle train ahead of the blast.
The intensity of the explosion shattered the windshields of nearby vehicles and the window panes of nearby buildings.
A large number of train passengers were people looking forward to catching connecting trains to their home stations for the upcoming Eid festival, officials said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the incident and said, Such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan.
We remain steadfast in our determination to eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, he added.
Railway authorities, according to a report in Geo News, stopped the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express at Quetta Railway Station after the blast as a precautionary measure.
Babar Yousafzai, the spokesperson of the province’s Home Ministry, said that all relevant institutions have been placed on high alert following the explosion. He urged the public not to gather near the blast site to ensure safety and allow emergency teams to carry out rescue operations without obstruction.
Balochistan has witnessed a series of such incidents in the past several years. The Jafar Express, which runs between Quetta and Peshawar, has been repeatedly targeted in recent years, with the attack in March being the worst.
In September 2025, a blast on the railway track in the Dasht area of Mastung, Balochistan, destroyed one coach of Jaffar Express and derailed six others, leaving 12 passengers injured.
August 10, 2025, four people were injured when an improvised explosive device derailed six coaches of the train in the Mastung district.
August 7, 2025, the train narrowly escaped a disaster near Balochistan’s Sibi railway station, where a bomb planted near the track exploded just after the passenger train had passed.
In another incident, August 4, 2025, gunmen fired five bullets at its pilot engine near Kolpur. The BLA claimed responsibility for the attack.
In June 2025, an explosion in the Jacobabad district of Sindh targeted the train, derailing four coaches. No casualties were reported in that attack.
March 11, 2025, the Jaffar Express was hijacked while travelling from Quetta to Peshawar in the Bolan area, resulting in the deaths of over 30 passengers and security personnel and holding hostage over 350 passengers. The security forces in a targeted operation killed 33 terrorists involved in attacking the train.
In November 2024, at least 32 people were killed, and scores were injured when a suicide bomber hit the Quetta Cantt Railway Station.