In an attack on Tuesday in Pakistan’s unstable southern Balochistan region, armed militants seized over 450 train passengers hostage and injured the train driver, according to officials.
Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway administration official in Quetta, the province’s capital, told AFP, “Gunmen are holding over 450 passengers hostage on board.”
“Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,” Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told AFP.
“Passengers include women and children,” he added.
The attack was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which is fighting for independence and accuses outsiders of profiting from the region’s wealth.
In a statement, it said gunmen bombed the railway track before storming aboard the train.The group “warned of severe consequences” if an attempt is made to rescue the hostages.
The incident happened around 1pm local time (8am Irish time) in rural Sibi district, near to a city station where it had been due to stop.
“A passenger train called the Jaffar Express was stopped by armed militants,” said a senior government official in Sibi, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“The passengers are being held hostage, and the driver has been injured.”
The train had left Quetta for Peshawar, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – a more than 30-hour journey – at around 9am. An emergency has been imposed at hospitals in Sibi, according to the government official.
“The train remains stuck just before a tunnel surrounded by mountains,” according to a senior police official from the region that borders Sibi. He begged not to be named since he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Because the terrain is mountainous, extremists can more easily set up hideouts and plot assaults.
Security forces have been fighting a decades-long insurgency in poor Balochistan, which militant groups say is being exploited by foreigners, with the local populace receiving little benefit from the syphoning off of riches from its natural resources.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, violence has increased in the western border regions with Afghanistan, extending from north to south.
The bloodiest year in nearly ten years, 2024, saw over 1,600 attacks in Pakistan, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, a research group based in Islamabad.
Seven Punjabi passengers were slain by BLA terrorists in February after they were told to get off a bus.
Last year, concerted attacks that mostly targeted ethnic Punjabis killed at least 39 people.
The major railway station in Quetta was bombed in November, killing 26 people, including 14 troops, and the BLA claimed responsibility for the incident.
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