24 people were killed after an explosion targeted a train in Pakistan

Officials in Pakistan said that a bomb explosion targeted a train carrying members of the Pakistani security forces and their families on Sunday in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Three officials in the regional administration and security said that the explosion killed at least 24 people and injured 70. They asked not to be mentioned by name because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The attack is the latest in a series of major strikes on trains, security forces and infrastructure in the mineral-rich province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Ministry of Railways said in a statement that the train was transporting passengers from the camp area in Quetta to transfer them to another long-distance train when the explosion occurred near a railway track in the provincial capital.

The ministry added that the explosion led to the locomotive and three vehicles derailing, while two vehicles overturned, adding that security forces cordoned off the area and that rescue operations were underway.
A security official said that a vehicle loaded with explosives collided with a train car in a residential area, and that some of the dead were residents of a nearby residential building.
Pictures from the site showed burned vehicles, damaged residential buildings, twisted metal panels and scattered debris near the railway track, with smoke billowing from the wreckage.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a post on the X social media platform, denounced what he described as a “horrific bomb explosion.” He expressed his condolences to the families of the dead and injured and said that the nation stands with the people of Balochistan.