Over a hundred hostages have been freed after armed rebels hijacked a train carrying over 400 passengers in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan region. Authorities said at least 16 rebels have been killed in a firefight with the forces.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- The security forces managed to rescue 104 hostages after a gunfight with the rebels. The rescued passengers – including 58 men, 31 women and 15 children – were taken to Mach, a nearby town where a makeshift hospital has been set up.
- The gunfight between the rebels of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Pakistani forces continued overnight. It’s not clear how many hostages remained on board Jaffar Express. The BLA has denied any casualties and claimed to have killed 30 soldiers, which has not been confirmed by authorities.
- A group of rebels was believed to have taken some of the hostages into the mountains and were being pursued by the security forces, while the rest were holding the locomotive.
- Reports suggest they had split in small groups to try to escape in the dark, but the military forces said they surrounded the tunnel with the mountainous terrain posing difficulty to the security operation.
- The Jaffar Express was intercepted by armed attackers in a tunnel in a remote area on its way from Quetta to Peshawar. At least 400 passengers were in its nine bogies. The route was made operational after a month-long suspension.
- The hijacking was later claimed by the BLA, the strongest separatist group in the region seeking independence for Balochistan. They blew up the tracks, forcing it to come to a halt in a tunnel and also killed the locomotive driver.
- The BLA demanded the release of Baloch political prisoners and missing persons whom they said were kidnapped by the military, within 48 hours. If the demands were not met, they threatened to “completely destroy” the train. The group also threatened to execute 10 hostages in response to the military operation.
- Emergency desks have been set up at Peshawar and Quetta railway stations to help the relatives of the passengers held hostage by the rebels.
- Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the attack while Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi accused “enemy forces” of conspiring to create instability in the country by perpetrating violence in Balochistan.
- Balochistan has seen deadly clashes in the past few months, besides enforced disappearances of civilians allegedly by the state forces. Last November, a suicide blast killed 26 people and injured 62 others at the Quetta railway station.