Updated November 9, 2024 at 2:52 a.m. ET

QUETTA, Pakistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including security officers, and wounding about 50 others, some critically, officials said.

The attack occurred as nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province, according to Hamza Shafqaat, a senior government administrator.

A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying a suicide bomber targeted troops present at the station. The outlawed BLA has long waged an insurgency seeking independence from Islamabad.

Police said about a dozen security forces were among the dead.

TV footage showed the steel structure of the platform’s roof crushed and a tea stall destroyed as luggage littered the site.

Ayesha Faiz, a police official in Quetta, said some of the seriously injured passengers died in a hospital, adding to the death toll.

Shahid Rind, a government spokesman, said all the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in a statement, saying those who orchestrated the attack “will pay a very heavy price for it,” adding that security forces were determined to eliminate the “threat of terrorism.”

The attack came just over a week after a powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to protect polio workers in Balochistan, killing nine people, including five children nearby.

Oil and mineral rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. It is also a center for the country’s Baloch ethnic minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. Along with separatist groups, Islamic militants also operate in the province.

The BLA often targets security forces and foreigners, particularly Chinese nationals who are in Pakistan as part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects. The group often calls for a halt to all Chinese-funded projects and for workers to leave Pakistan to avoid further attacks.

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