Dozens of people rescued from a train hijacked by separatist militants in southwest Pakistan arrived in Quetta on Thursday, hours after security forces killed all 33 attackers, successfully ending a tense and violent day-long standoff that had gripped the region.
Militants blew up the rail tracks and opened fire on the Jaffar Express as it made its way to Peshawar in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Quetta, the capital of mineral-rich Balochistan province, taking several passengers hostage.
Armed insurgent group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the largest of the region’s armed ethnic groups battling the government, claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 21 hostages and four security troops.
The BLA’s tactics have included attacks on civilian targets, such as the 2024 suicide bombing at the Quetta railway station, which resulted in 32 deaths and 62 injuries. The group’s focus on such targets has raised concerns about its impact on the local population’s support.
“The terrorists eventually breached the train by smashing windows, but they mistakenly believed we were dead and retreated,” said train driver Amjad, who dived for cover to the engine floor as soon as the militants opened fire on it.
He crouched there for about 27 hours until the security forces arrived, he added.
Reuters video images showed first-aid being administered to rescued passengers at the railway station in Quetta, where they had been escorted by security forces.
“If the army had not come today … the attackers had said they would execute all of us,” one of the rescued passengers told broadcaster Geo News.
The BLA had threatened to start killing hostages if authorities missed a 48-hour deadline to release Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing people it said had been abducted by the military.
The group says the government denies the region its fair share of the benefits from its mineral resources.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit the region on Thursday, media said. He had condemned the attack in a post on X on Tuesday, adding, “Such cowardly acts will not shake Pakistan’s resolve for peace.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
