A number 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 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.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said “people have also been martyred, but we will share details later.”
Officials said the attack has now ended and all the gunmen have been killed, as well as a number of passengers who had been taken hostage.
“Our operation has entered its final phase. All the militants have been killed, and commandos are now advancing to enter the rail cars,” a Pakistani official told Germany’s DPA news agency on condition of anonymity.
“We don’t yet know how many passengers have been killed. We still have to count the bodies,” they added.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it executed around 50 hostages.
Overnight, around 190 hostages were freed by Pakistani forces.
Hundreds of passengers taken hostage On Tuesday, around 100 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 train had around 450 passengers on board, both civilians and a large number of security personnel.
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.
Pakistani forces said they rescued a large number of hostages from the trainImage: Naseer Ahmed/REUTERS Some of the freed hostages 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,” one of the passengers told the AFP news agency.
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.
Resource distribution issues behind BLA attack: expertTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
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 neighboring Iran.
Edited by: Natalie Muller
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