According to security sources, Pakistan’s military has rescued 190 train passengers who were taken hostage by gunmen during a siege in the mountainous southwest region of the country, marking the second day of the crisis.
Over 450 individuals were aboard the train when a separatist militant group seized control in a remote frontier area. An unspecified number of hostages still remain in captivity.
“As of now, we have managed to rescue 190 passengers, and 30 terrorists have been neutralized. We are exercising extreme caution due to the presence of women and children alongside the suicide bombers,” stated security sources.
“The operation is ongoing to eliminate the remaining militants.”
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, sharing a video showing an explosion on the tracks followed by scores of militants emerging from their mountain hideouts and storming the train carriages.
“Intelligence reports indicate that some militants have escaped, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous regions,” reported a local security official.
Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official from the provincial capital Quetta, confirmed that 450 individuals had been taken hostage.
Passengers who trekked for hours through rough terrain to reach safety recounted the harrowing experience of being released by their captors.
“Our women begged for mercy, and they spared us,” said Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian laborer.
“They ordered us to leave without looking back. As we fled, I noticed many others escaping alongside us.”
Paramilitary troops arrived at a railway station in Quetta with empty coffins destined for the incident site.
“I can’t describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying,” said Muhammad Bilal, who had been traveling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train.
Soldiers are on patrol at a railway station in Balochistan province.
The BLA has executed a series of recent assaults against security forces and ethnic groups they accuse of profiting from the region’s wealth.
The group is demanding a prisoner exchange with security forces for its detained members.
According to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam, the attack resulted in the deaths of the train driver, a police officer, and a soldier.
Several hostages reported that the gunmen checked identity cards to identify individuals from outside the province, a tactic similar to recent assaults attributed to the BLA.
“They checked IDs and service cards, shot two soldiers in front of me, and took four others away. I don’t know their fate,” recounted a passenger who wished to remain anonymous, after walking four hours to the nearest train station.
“Those who were of Punjabi ethnicity were taken away by the terrorists,” he added.
Approximately 80 of the freed passengers were escorted to Quetta under “tight security,” according to a police official.
The freed train passengers arrive at Quetta Railway Station.
Authorities have imposed access restrictions in certain areas of Balochistan, where numerous energy and infrastructure projects are supported by Chinese investments amounting to billions of euros, including a significant port and airport.
The BLA contends that the region’s natural resources are being exploited by outsiders and has intensified attacks aimed at Pakistanis from other regions, security forces, and foreign development projects.
Last year, the group launched coordinated attacks, including seizing control of a main motorway and fatally shooting travelers from different ethnic backgrounds.
Last month, the BLA claimed an attack resulting in the deaths of 17 paramilitary soldiers, followed by a suicide bombing this month that killed another soldier.
“The valuable natural resources in Balochistan belong to the Baloch nation,” stated a BLA communiqué at that time.
“Pakistani military generals and their Punjabi elite are looting these resources for their own luxury.”
Residents in Baloch regularly hold protests against the state, alleging that it rounds up innocent individuals during its counter-terrorism operations.
Security forces have been engaged in a prolonged insurgency in the impoverished Balochistan, but violence saw an increase in the province last year compared to 2023, according to the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies.
The organization found that 2024 was the deadliest year for Pakistan in a decade, with escalating violence along the Afghanistan border since the Taliban regained power in Kabul in 2021.
Pakistan accuses its neighbor of providing sanctuary to militant groups who plan and execute attacks, a claim that Kabul refutes.
