‘Carnage’: Bomb attack on train stations in Quetta, Pakistan kills 26 | News

It was like a ‘Day of Judgment’, one victim says, after a suicide bomber targeted passengers waiting to board an express train

Quetta, Pakistan – On Saturday morning, Ikhtiar Hussain, a senior ticket inspector for Pakistan Railways, arrived at Quetta Railway Station in Balochistan province at around 8:25 a.m. local time (03:25 GMT), ready to board the train for work.

Seconds later, Hussein heard a powerful explosion and fell to the ground. Shrapnel from the explosion had hit his right cheek and his face began to bleed.

At least 26 people, including security personnel and civilians, were killed and dozens injured after a suicide bomber attacked passengers waiting for the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express on Saturday morning.

Hussain, 47, survived, but with wounds on his face and memories that will never fade.

“It was a representation of the Day of Judgment because within seconds, people smiling at the station fell to the ground in a bloodbath,” Hussain recalled to Al Jazeera from Civil Hospital Quetta, where he is being treated for his wounds.

Pakistani officials confirmed it was a suicide bombing. Law enforcement authorities are investigating how the attacker entered the station despite strict security measures at the entry and exit gates.

A banned armed secessionist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) (BLA), has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior political leaders condemned the attack on unarmed passengers and vowed to punish the perpetrators.

But for many whose friends and relatives are in critical condition, the government must also answer questions.

Hafiz Allah Ditta, a 32-year-old local bricklayer, had come to the station to invite a friend who was traveling to the southern city of Bahawalpur. “As we entered platform No. 1 of the train station, a powerful explosion shook the area,” Ditta recalls. His friend is now in intensive care at the hospital, he added.

“Police officers stood at the counter and searched passengers’ luggage, but the government should strengthen security measures at the train station because we don’t know how the suicide bomber stormed into the station,” Ditta said.

Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has witnessed an increase in violent attacks since January. The government and security forces have fought with religious armed groups such as ISIL (ISIS), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch separatist groups.

Last week, nine people were killed in an IED explosion that targeted a police vehicle tasked with guarding polio vaccination teams in Mastung, a remote town about 52 km from the capital Quetta.

Commissioner Hamza Shafqat, a senior bureaucrat who heads administrative affairs in four districts including Quetta, told reporters that CCTV footage suggested the attacker entered the station and posed as a passenger before blowing himself up.

Muhammad Amir Rafique, 41, another railway employee who was on duty at the station, said he saw a plume of smoke and dust coming from the platform after the powerful explosion.

“We ran to the spot, the injured were screaming for help and the dead bodies were on the ground,” he told Al Jazeera. Rafique then began helping police and rescuers take the injured to ambulances.