Separatist insurgents hijacked a train in Pakistan on Tuesday and took its nearly 500 passengers hostage in an audacious terrorist attack that shocked the nation.
The Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, which has waged a long insurgency in the restive southwest province of Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the ambush.
Security officials said the military rescued at least 155 hostages in an overnight operation and killed 27 militants.
The BLA claimed that they killed 30 soldiers and shot down a drone.
The insurgents ambushed the Jaffar Express, which was running from the provincial capital Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar, in the mountainous area of Bolan. They detonated explosives on the tracks to force the train to stop, trapping it inside the Mashkaf tunnel.
Who are the Baloch Liberation Army?
The BLA is one of the largest militant outfits demanding independence for Balochistan. It is designated as a terrorist group by Pakistan as well as the US.
The BLA and fellow insurgent groups accuse Pakistan’s federal government of unfairly exploiting the natural resources like oil and minerals found in Balochistan, the country’s largest but least populous province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
They claim that Pakistan forcibly integrated the province after pressuring the Khanate of Kalat, which governed the region during British rule, to sign a treaty of accession in 1948.
The BLA has a long history of targeting civilians and security forces in the province, which is home to nine million ethnic Baloch people. The group routinely launches attacks on natural resource extraction projects as the mountainous region serves as a haven for the insurgents.
For decades, the group carried out mostly small-scale attacks. That changed last August when it launched a series of attacks and killed about 70 people.
They included 23 passengers, mostly from eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from vehicles in Musakhail.
The BLA took responsibility for an attack near the Karachi airport that killed two Chinese citizens last year. It also sent women suicide bombers to target Chinese nationals at a university in the coastal city, apparently in protest against the Chinese operating gold and copper mines in Balochistan.
China has invested over £50bn in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, an offshoot of the Belt and Road initiative, which involves Balochistan.
In all, the militant group killed more than 1,600 people last year, the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad said.
Why did BLA attack the train?
The BLA has demanded the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists and citizens allegedly abducted during military operations that have been criticised for flouting human rights.
After hijacking the train, the group said it had taken hostage many security personnel travelling home on leave. “Civilian passengers, particularly women, children, the elderly, and Baloch citizens, have been released safely, and given a secure route,” the BLA said in a statement.
“BLA is prepared for a prisoner exchange,” the group said, but threatened to execute the hostages if the military intervention continued.
“If our demands are not met within the stipulated period or if the occupying state attempts any military action during this time all prisoners of war will be neutralised and the train will be completely destroyed.”
The militants have made bombers wearing explosive-laden jackets sit next to some of the hostages, Reuters reported, quoting unnamed sources who did not specify the number of the people being held.
The BLA claimed that it was holding 214 people. A security source told Reuters there were 425 passengers on the train when it was attacked.
In a statement on Tuesday, the BLA “strongly warned” all foreign investors not to participate in the exploitation of “occupied Balochistan’s resources”.
It was not immediately known how many militants were involved in the attack. Pakistani officials and security analysts estimated the group had around 3,000 fighters.
President Asif Ali Zardari and prime minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack and vowed to “bring the cowardly terrorists to their end”.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres also condemned the attack and demanded the immediate release of all the hostages.
