Pakistani troops on Tuesday freed dozens of train passengers held hostage by armed terrorists in the south -west of the country, with hundreds of people still held in deadly siege.
Security sources said there were heavy bullets between security forces and terrorists.
The gunmen stopped the train in a remote, hilly region of Balochistan province on Tuesday afternoon, claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) immediately, a separatist group behind the growing violence in the province that is on the borders of Afghanistan and Iran.
Security sources told AFP, “Security forces have successfully freed the 80 hostages, including 43 men, 26 women and 11 children from terrorists.”
“Efforts are underway to ensure safe release of the remaining passengers. The terrorists are surrounded, and the operation will continue until the final terrorist becomes ineffective.”
A nearby railway station in Mach has been converted into a hospital to get some injured.
According to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam at Mach railway station, the driver of the train, a police officer and soldier were all killed in assault.
Earlier in the day, Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the province’s capital, told AFP that “more than 450 passengers are being taken hostage by gunmen.”
In a statement, the BLA said that gunmen bombed the railway track before boarding the train.
The statement issued to the media said, “The militants rapidly controlled the train and took all the passengers hostage.”
If an attempt is made to save the hostages, the group “warned of serious consequences”.
The incident took place in rural Sibi district around 1:00 pm (0800 GMT), near a city station, where the train was due to stopping.
The train left Quetta for Peshawar in North-Western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-traveling more than 30 hours at 9:00 pm.
A senior police officer of Sibi’s border area, who did not name because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said “the train is stuck just before the tunnel surrounded by mountains”.
According to the government official, an emergency has been implemented in hospitals in SBI.
Decades
The region is a mountainous region, making terrorists easier for hideouts and plan attacks.
Security forces have been struggling with long rebellion for a long time, claiming that it is being claimed by outsiders, its natural resources made very little profit to the local population with funds.
But the violence has increased from north to south in the western border regions with Afghanistan, as the Taliban withdrew power in 2021.
Pakistan accused the Taliban government of giving safe shelter to terrorists to plan attacks in Kabul. The Taliban government denied the charge.
The BLA has initiated massive attacks in recent months, including catching a motorway overnight and identifying passengers from outside the province and shooting them dead.
BLA militants also killed seven Punjabi passengers in February when they were ordered by a bus.
In November, BLA claimed responsibility for bombing at Quetta’s main railway station, killing 26 people, including 14 soldiers.
Last year was nearly a decade of the deadliest year, in which more than 1,600 people were killed in attacks in Pakistan, in most border areas, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Analysis Group in Islamabad.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
