Quetta, Pakistan — On Saturday morning, Ikhtiar Hussain, a senior ticket inspector for Pakistan Railways arrived at Quetta Railway Station in the country’s Balochistan province at about 8:25am local time (03:25 GMT), ready to board the train to start work.
Seconds later, Hussain heard a powerful explosion and fell to the ground. Shrapnel from the explosion had hit his right cheek, and his face started bleeding.
At least 26 people, including security personnel and civilians, were killed, and dozens were injured after a suicide bomber targeted passengers who were 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 view of Judgement Day, because in seconds people smiling at the station fell down on the ground in a bloodbath,” Hussain recalled to Al Jazeera from Civil Hospital Quetta, where he is receiving treatment for his wounds.
Pakistani officials have confirmed that it was a suicide attack. Law enforcement agencies are investigating how the attacker managed to get inside the station despite strict security measures at the entry and exit gates.
An outlawed armed secessionist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) (BLA), has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior political leaders have condemned the attack on unarmed passengers and promised 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 mason, had come to the station to see off a friend travelling to the southern city of Bahawalpur. “As we entered platform No. 1 of the railway station a powerful explosion rocked the area,” Ditta recalled. His friend is now in critical care at the hospital, he added.
“Policemen were standing at the ticket booth and searching the pieces of baggage of passengers, but the government should enhance security measures at the railway station because we don’t how the suicide bomber barged inside the station,” Ditta said.
Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, which shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan, has witnessed an uptick in violent attacks since January. The government and security forces have been battling with religious armed groups like ISIL (ISIS), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch secessionist 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 city located some 52km (32 miles) from the capital Quetta.
Commissioner Hamza Shafqat, a senior bureaucrat who leads the administrative affairs in four districts including Quetta, told reporters that CCTV footage suggested the attacker had entered the station pretending to be a passenger before he blew 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 out from the platform after the powerful explosion.
“We ran toward the site, the injured were screaming for help and dead bodies lying down on the floor,” he told Al Jazeera. Rafique then began helping police and rescue workers move the injured to ambulances.
