The tense silence inside the Jaffar Express ended in a barrage of gunfire as Pakistani security forces stormed the hijacked train on Wednesday, killing all 33 separatist militants and rescuing hundreds of passengers.
The day-long standoff, marked by explosions and hostage threats, began when Baloch militants attacked the train in Balochistan, demanding the release of prisoners.
As special forces moved in, militants wearing suicide vests sat among terrified passengers. In a final planned assault, commandos eliminated the attackers. However, the ordeal left 21 passengers and four security personnel dead.
“Today we freed a large number of people, including women and children … The final operation was carried out with great care,” Reuters quoted military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry as saying. He added that no civilians were killed in the final stage of the operation.
The Baloch Liberation Army, which claimed responsibility for the attack, blew up the railway track and fired rockets at the Jaffar Express on Tuesday.
The train, carrying 440 passengers, was travelling from Quetta in Balochistan to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was targeted.
Before the army’s announcement, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed to have killed 50 passengers on Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, it said it was holding 214 people, mostly security personnel.
The group had warned that it would begin executing hostages if authorities failed to meet its 48-hour deadline to release Baloch political prisoners, activists, and those it claimed were abducted by the military.
The BLA is the largest of several ethnic armed groups fighting the government in Balochistan, a region bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
In recent months, the militants have intensified their attacks, adopting new tactics to cause heavy casualties and strike at Pakistan’s military.
Baloch militant groups claim they are fighting for a greater share of the region’s mineral wealth, which they say is controlled by the central government.
Special forces end train siege
Challenging the rescue operation, militants sat among hostages wearing suicide vests, junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry said. He estimated that 70 to 80 attackers had hijacked the train.
The military deployed hundreds of troops, along with the air force and special forces, Chaudhry added.
In the final phase of the operation, he said special forces first eliminated the suicide bombers before troops moved through each carriage to neutralise the remaining militants.
Passengers recalled the chaos as the attack unfolded. Muhammad Ashraf, 75, who was on board, said he heard a loud explosion in the mountainous area, shaking all the carriages
With Reuters inputs
