Pakistan Train Hijack: 155 Hostages Freed, 27 Rebels Killed
Peshawar/Internet/Hyderabad, Mar 12 (Maxim News): At least 155 hostages were freed after armed rebels hijacked a train carrying over 400 passengers in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan region on Tuesday. 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. It is not clear how many hostages remained on board.
The Jaffar Express was intercepted by armed attackers in a tunnel in a remote area on its way from Quetta to Peshawar – a route that was made operational after a month-long suspension. The gunfight between the rebels of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Pakistani forces continued overnight, in which at least 27 rebels were killed.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which seeks independence for Balochistan from Pakistan, said in a statement that it took control of a train and kept over 180 passengers, most of them Pakistani soldiers, as hostages. Several Pakistani military personnel were also killed, the BLA said.
The BLA gave 48 hours to the Pakistani government to release all Baloch political prisoners and ‘forcibly disappeared persons.”
The Jaffar Express, with over 450 passengers on board in nine bogies, was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, railway officials said.
Hostages freed from a train siege in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday said they walked for hours through mountainous terrain to reach safety, forced to leave behind relatives from whom they were separated.
Rebels waging a war of independence against the Pakistani state set off explosions on the railway track in a remote area of Balochistan, forcing the train to a halt and taking more than 450 passengers hostage. “I can’t find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying,” Muhammad Bilal said. (Maxim News)
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