At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

QUETTA, Pakistan - At least 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, police and other officials told Reuters.

Pakistan is grappling with a surge in strikes by separatist ethnic militants in Balochistan province in the south and Islamist militants in its northwest. A decades-old insurgency has destabilised Balochistan and created security concerns for projects trying to access the province's untapped resources.

Inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, said 24 people have died so far from the blast at the railway station, which is usually busy early in the day.

"The target was army personnel from the Infantry School," he said, with many of the injured in critical condition.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to Reuters.

The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan, a province of about 15 million people that borders Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The BLA is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the government, saying it unfairly exploits the province's rich gas and mineral resources.

"So far 44 injured people have been brought to civil hospital," Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, told Reuters.

Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were underway for more information.

"The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination," Baloch said.

In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan province after separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways.

The assaults in August were the most widespread in years by militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

(Reporting by Saleem Ahmed in Quetta and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by William Mallard and Tom Hogue)