Islamabad:
Pakistani army on Wednesday said it has ended the 30-hour operation to rescue the train passengers taken hostage by a rebel group in Balochistan and confirmed that 21 civilians and four security troops were killed.
In a statement, the Army also said that security forces killed all 33 rebels, including suicide bombers.
The Jaffar Express, carrying 440 passengers in nine coaches, was going from Quetta to Peshawar when Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) members derailed it using explosives and hijacked it near the mountainous terrain of Gudalar and Piru Kunri in a tunnel 160 kilometres from Quetta on Tuesday.
“Intelligence reports have unequivocally confirmed that the attack was orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from Afghanistan, who were in direct communication with the terrorists throughout the incident,” the statement read.
“Pakistan expects the Interim Afghan Government to uphold its responsibilities and deny use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan,” it added.
Before the army announcement, the BLA on Wednesday evening said it had killed 50 passengers. It had said on Tuesday that it was holding 214 people, mostly security personnel.
The BLA, the strongest rebel group active in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, had threatened to start executing hostages unless authorities met its 48-hour deadline for the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing people it says had been abducted by the military.
Why Pak Train Seize Rescue Op Stretched
The Pakistani security forces took time to complete the operation because the rebels were using the hostages as human shields, Army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif said.
“The rescue operation continued periodically, and in the final clearance operation in the evening, all remaining hostages were secured. Since the terrorists were using passengers as human shields, the operation was conducted with extreme precision and caution,” he told a news channel.
He said that first, snipers killed the suicide bombers and then cleared each train compartment.
He said that no passengers were harmed during the clearance operation.
Baloch Rebels Release Video Of Hijack
A video released by the BLA shows its members bombing a section of the railway track and storming the train on Tuesday afternoon.
The 1 minute 23 seconds of the grainy footage shows passengers huddled on the ground, silhouetted against the mountain, with rebels, holding guns, keeping a watch over them.
Passengers freed 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,” Muhammad Bilal, who had been travelling with his mother on the Jafar Express train, told news agency AFP.