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Reuters

Dozens of people rescued from a train hijacked by separatist militants in southwestern Pakistan arrived on Thursday in the city of Quetta, hours after security forces killed all 33 attackers to end a day-long stand-off.
The 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 hostage several of the 440 aboard.
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.
Men armed with rocket launchers, guns and other weapons stormed the train on Tuesday and began shooting people, said Arslan Yousaf, one of those who arrived in Quetta escorted by security forces.
The militants grouped the passengers on the basis of their region of origin, Yousaf added.
“Sometimes, they took soldiers … and executed them,” he said, referring to passengers from the Pakistan army and other security forces who were travelling on leave.
“Other times, they targeted specific individuals. If they had a grudge against someone, they shot him on the spot.”


Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian labourer, said on Wednesday he and his family walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach a train that could take them to a makeshift hospital on a railway platform.
“Our women pleaded with them and they spared us,” he said.
“They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us.”
Hundreds of troops, special forces and military helicopters joined the effort to free the hostages stranded in remote mountainous terrain.
The hostages survived only on water during the time they were held, said Muhammad Tanveer, another passenger.
Reuters video images showed the rescued hostages receiving first aid at the Quetta railway station.
“The terrorists breached the train by smashing windows, but they mistakenly believed we were dead,” said train driver Amjad, who dived to the engine floor for cover when the militants opened fire, and lay there for about 27 hours to survive.

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.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif travelled to Balochistan province on Thursday to meet survivors. He condemned the attack in a post on X on Tuesday, adding, “Such cowardly acts will not shake Pakistan’s resolve for peace.”
Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan but last year saw a surge in violence in the province compared with 2023, according to the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies.
In an overnight statement, the military said it had “confirmed intelligence” indicating that the assault was “orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from Afghanistan, who were in direct communication with the terrorists throughout the incident.”
Pakistan often accuse Kabul of sheltering Pakistani Taliban and BLA, a charge the Afghan government denies.
However, the military in the statement urged the Afghan Taliban government to uphold its responsibilities and deny the use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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South Asia

Separatist militants had blown up a railway track and taken hundreds of captives, 21 of whom died


Separatist militants had blown up a railway track and taken hundreds of captives, 21 of whom died.


Terrorism