San Francisco Frontiers - Pakistan launches 'full-scale' operation to free train hostages

Over the course of two days, Pakistani forces have managed to free 155 hostages from the besieged train, with an unknown number of passengers still onboard.

Militants bombed a section of the railway track and stormed the train Tuesday afternoon in southwest Balochistan province, where attacks by separatists have been on the rise.

According to security sources, the "terrorists have positioned suicide bombers right next to innocent hostage passengers".

Three people have been killed, including the train driver, during the siege in remote, mountainous Sibi district.

A security official told AFP "a full-scale operation" would aim to free the rest of the captives.

"Security forces have safely rescued 155 passengers... 27 terrorists have been eliminated," a security source said. An earlier count included at least "31 women and 15 children".

It was not immediately clear how many people remained onboard.

The assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group behind rising violence in the province which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in provincial capital Quetta, told AFP that "over 450 passengers onboard" had been taken hostage.

Hostages freed on Tuesday deascribed 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 Jafar Express train, told AFP.

- Punjabis 'taken away' -

The driver of the train, a police officer and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam.

One passenger described gunmen sorting through identity cards to confirm who was from outside of the province, similar to a spate of recent attacks carried out by the Baloch Liberation Army.

"They came and checked IDs and service cards and shot two soldiers in front of me and took the other four to... I don't know where," said one passenger who asked not to be named, after walking four hours to the nearest train station.

"Those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists," he added.

Around 80 of the released passengers were taken to provincial capital Quetta under "tight security", said a police official who was not authorised to speak to the media.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan, but violence has soared in the western border regions with Afghanistan, from north to south, since the Taliban took back power in 2021.

The BLA claim the region's natural resources are being exploited by outsiders and have increased attacks targeting Pakistanis from other regions.

In February, BLA militants killed seven Punjabi travellers after they were ordered off a bus.

M.Gonzalez--SFF