Jaffar Express was intercepted by armed attackers in a remote area of Balochistan
Pakistan has launched a "full scale" military operation to rescue the hostages from a train hijacked by armed rebels in the restive Balochistan region. Over 150 passengers have been rescued so far by the forces overnight.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- The security forces managed to rescue 155 hostages and killed 27 rebels after a gunfight with the armed attackers. The rescued passengers - including dozens of women and children - were taken to Mach, a nearby town where a makeshift hospital has been set up.
- The gunfight between the rebels of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Pakistani forces continued overnight. It's not clear how many hostages remained on board Jaffar Express. The BLA has denied any casualties and claimed to have killed 30 soldiers, which has not been confirmed by authorities.
- A group of rebels was believed to have taken some hostages to the mountains and were being pursued by the forces, while the rest were holding the locomotive. They had split in small groups to escape in the dark, but the forces said they had surrounded the tunnel.
- Pakistan has now launched a "full-scale operation" to free the hostages, news agency AFP reported citing security sources, but it is feared that suicide bombers are guarding the hostages. The mountainous terrain is also posing difficulty to the rescue operation.
- The Jaffar Express was intercepted by armed attackers in a tunnel in a remote area on its way from Quetta to Peshawar. At least 400 passengers were in its nine bogies. The route was made operational after a month-long suspension.
- The hijacking was later claimed by the BLA, the strongest separatist group in the region seeking independence for Balochistan. They blew up the tracks, forcing it to come to a halt in a tunnel and also killed the locomotive driver.
- The BLA demanded the release of Baloch political prisoners and missing persons whom they said were kidnapped by the military, within 48 hours. If the demands were not met, they threatened to "completely destroy" the train. The group also threatened to execute 10 hostages in response to the military operation.
- One of the passengers, who walked for four hours through the mountains to reach safety, said the attackers checked the hostage IDs to segregate those from Pakistan's Punjab region and took them away. He said the rebels also shot two soldiers dead in front of him.
- Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the "cowardly" attack during the fasting month of Ramzan. "We will continue the fight against the monster of terrorism until it is completely eradicated from the country. We will thwart every conspiracy to spread unrest and chaos in Pakistan," read a statement shared by Pakistan PMO.
- Balochistan has seen deadly clashes in the past few months, besides enforced disappearances of civilians allegedly by the state forces. Last November, a suicide blast killed 26 people and injured 62 others at the Quetta railway station.
