Dozens of hostages on a train in southwestern Pakistan were killed, officials said on Wednesday, a day after insurgents attacked the train in the restive Balochistan region.
Around 450 people were traveling on the Jaffar Express in the remote frontier province when it was attacked by Baloch separatists on Tuesday. Pakistani forces responded to the attack overnight.
“Today we freed a large number of people, including women and children … The final operation was carried out with great care,” Pakistani military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said.
Chaudhry said 21 hostages and 33 insurgents were killed. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it executed around 50 hostages.
Many of the passengers killed were off-duty soldiers, the AFP news agency reported.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said “people have also been martyred, but we will share details later.”
Hundreds of hostages freed
The Pakistani military said the attack has now ended.
An army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency that more than 300 hostages had been freed in the 30-hour-long operation.
The attack took place on Tuesday, when dozens of gunmen blew up a stretch of train track and fired at the Jaffar Express, which was traveling from the regional capital Quetta to Peshawar.
The BLA gunmen took all of the passengers hostage and threatened to kill them unless members of the separatist militant group were released from prison.
However, the Pakistani government refused to negotiate with the gunmen and instead launched an overnight operation to free the hostages.
Some of the hostages said BLA gunmen fired at passengers.
“They asked us to come outside, saying we will not be harmed. When around 185 people came outside, they chose people and shot them down,” a freed hostage told AFP.
Another freed hostage described walking for hours through mountainous terrain to reach safety.
“I can’t find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying,” they told AFP.
Who are the Balochistan insurgents?
The BLA has carried out attacks against civilians, Pakistani forces and Chinese business interests in Balochistan for more than two decades. It regularly targets trains.
The militant group seeks independence for the mineral rich region in southwestern Pakistan.
It claims the Pakistani government and China exploit the region’s rich natural resources, and that local Baloch people do not benefit.
China has funded ports, railways, highways and other major infrastructure as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
A similar insurgency has launched attacks in the Balochistan region of neighbouring Iran.
This report was first published on DW.
