Pakistan train explosion killed 29 people and injured 102 others on Sunday, when a blast hit a commuter train in Quetta, western Pakistan. Police and local authorities said the exact nature of the explosion was still under investigation.

Pakistan train explosion kills 29 near Quetta
Photo: Al Jazeera

The train was travelling toward a military residential area at the time of the attack. Quetta police official Hameed Ali Shah told EFE that 29 passengers were killed and 102 were wounded, while sources cited by Xinhua said women and children were among the dead and injured.

Pakistan train explosion near Chaman Phatak

Authorities believe the blast took place on the railway tracks near the Chaman Phatak level crossing, a railway junction in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. The location is about 125 kilometers from Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Muhammed Ramzan, a police officer at the Quetta Police Control Center, said a commuter train coming from Quetta was struck near the Chaman Phatak railroad crossing. He also said the train had departed from a military base in Quetta.

The force of the Quetta train blast sent the locomotive and three coaches off the tracks. Two railcars overturned, and police said the shockwave destroyed more than 10 vehicles parked nearby and shattered windows in adjacent buildings.

Federal Railways Minister Muhammad Hanif Abbasi described the incident as a “cowardly act of terrorism.” He attributed the attack to “hostile forces” operating from Afghanistan with Indian backing, saying their sole objective was to destabilize the country.

Jaffar Express blast adds pressure on Balochistan

The train involved was the Jaffar Express. It was carrying law enforcement personnel heading home for the Eid holidays and had left Quetta Cantonment before the explosion occurred at about 8:05 a.m. local time.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber using a car bomb loaded with more than 70 kilograms of explosives. The railway tracks explosion also left the locomotive and several railcars derailed.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province by area, yet it remains among the least developed parts of the country. For decades, the province has been affected by an armed separatist insurgency against the central government in Islamabad.

The Baloch Liberation Army, the main Baloch separatist group active in the region, accuses Islamabad of exploiting the province’s gas and mineral resources. It says local communities, which face the highest poverty rates in the country, have not received the benefits of that wealth.

Separatist and Islamist violence shape the wider threat

The security situation in Balochistan is also shaped by Islamist militant activity. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as TTP or the Pakistani Taliban, is ideologically aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and has added another layer of pressure to the region.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Kabul regime of allowing both TTP insurgents and Baloch separatist commandos to take refuge on Afghan territory. Pakistani authorities say those groups use that territory to plan and carry out coordinated attacks inside Pakistan.