The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which seeks independence for Balochistan from Pakistan in a statement said it took control of a train and kept over 180 passengers, most of them Pakistani soldiers, hostages. Several Pakistani military personnel were also killed, the BLA said.
The BLA gave 48 hours to the Pakistani government to release all Baloch political prisoners and “forcibly disappeared persons.”
The Jaffar Express, with over 450 passengers on board in nine bogies, was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, railway officials told news agency Reuters.
“Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,” Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, told news agency AFP earlier.
AFP also reported, quoting security sources, that Pakistani troops had freed 80 train passengers who were taken hostage.
“Security forces have successfully freed 80 hostages, including 43 men, 26 women, and 11 children, from the terrorists,” the security sources said, adding that “efforts are ongoing to ensure the safe release of the remaining passengers”.
The BLA, in a statement signed by its spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch, said the hostages will be killed if Pakistani forces launch an operation.
The BLA fighters blew the railway tracks and forced the train to stop inside a tunnel, after which they boarded it.
“Any military incursion will be met with an equally forceful response. So far, six military personnel have been killed, and hundreds of passengers remain under BLA custody. The Baloch Liberation Army takes full responsibility for this operation,” the BLA spokesperson said in the statement shared on social media.
Security forces had reached the site of the incident, in the Mushqaf area of the Bolan district of Balochistan, a railway official said.
The Balochistan government has imposed emergency measures and all institutions have been mobilised to deal with the situation, government spokesperson Shahid Rind said.
A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan by separatist militant groups has led to frequent attacks against the Pakistani government, army and Chinese interests in the region, pressing demands for a share in mineral-rich resources.
The BLA is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups that have battled the Pakistani government for decades, saying it unfairly exploits Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.
Although Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by area, covering nearly 44 per cent of the country’s total landmass, it is the least populated province. The province is home to one of the world’s largest deep-sea ports in Gwadar, which Pakistan says is strategically significant for both regional and global trade routes.
Situated in the southwestern region of Pakistan, Balochistan shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the northeast, Punjab to the east, and Sindh to the southeast. It also borders Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north, while its southern boundary is formed by the Arabian Sea.
With inputs from Reuters
