Help is here: A soldier working to evacuate freed train passengers at the Mach railway station, which has been turned into a makeshift hospital. — AFP
SUICIDE bombers were seated next to some of the scores of passengers taken hostage after separatists hijacked a train in southwest Pakistan, complicating rescue efforts, security sources said.
About 60 Balochi insurgents blew up a railway track and lobbed rockets at the Jaffar Express on Tuesday, which had over 400 people on board, a security official said.
Hundreds of troops and teams in helicopters have mounted an operation to rescue hostages in the remote mountainous area where the train has been stopped.
The government said it has so far rescued at least 190 passengers. There was no official word on how many people remained in the captivity of the separatists.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic armed group that claimed responsibility for the attack, said on Tuesday that it was holding 214 people hostage.
“People were attacked ... passengers were injured and some passengers died,” said Muhammad Ashraf, who was on the train.
Passengers freed on Tuesday described walking for hours through mountainous terrain to reach safety.
“I can’t find the words to describe how we managed to escape.
“It was terrifying,” Muhammad Bilal, who had been travelling with his mother on the train, said.
The train was trapped in a tunnel and the driver was killed after sustaining serious injuries, police and railway officials said.
The BLA has threatened to start executing hostages unless Baloch political prisoners, activists and missing persons it said had been abducted by the military were released within 48 hours.
A security source said there were at least 425 passengers on the train when it was attacked on its way from Quetta, Balochistan’s capital city, to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The security source said that after taking control of the train, the insurgents began pulling passengers off and checking their identification.
“They were looking for soldiers and security personnel,” the official said, adding that at least 11 people, including paramilitary troops, had been killed so far.
BLA separatists with bombs strapped to their bodies were sitting next to other passengers, the source said.
BLA is the largest of several ethnic armed groups battling Pakistan’s government in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
The security source said yesterday that 27 BLA fighters had been killed so far in the military operation. On Tuesday, the BLA denied any of its members were killed.
More than 50 of those rescued so far were brought to Quetta yesterday morning, escorted by security forces, where their relatives were waiting for them.
A Reuters journalist saw nearly 100 empty coffins at Quetta railway station where more people who were aboard the Jaffer Express were expected to arrive.
Pakistan Railways has suspended all operations from Punjab and Sindh provinces to Balochistan until security agencies confirm the area is safe, local media reported yesterday. — Reuters/AFP
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