PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani forces have freed 190 passengers from a train that was hijacked by separatist militants, security officials said Wednesday, as fighting continued to free dozens more hostages held by militants in explosives-filled vests.
More than 400 people, including 214 soldiers and other security personnel, were on the Jaffar Express on Tuesday as it traveled from Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, to the northern city of Peshawar.
As it entered a tunnel in a remote, mountainous district of Balochistan, the railway track was blown up by militants who then opened fire on the train, killing 11 people in Pakistan’s first such hijacking.
Armed with rockets, grenades and guns, the assailants then began taking passengers hostage. Security officials said the militants separated law enforcement personnel from the others before taking them into the mountains in small groups.
Militants said Tuesday that they were still holding 214 people hostage, according to Reuters.
The rescue operation is being conducted extremely cautiously, the officials said, as the hostages are surrounded by militants wearing explosives-laden vests.
“They are using these hostages as human shields,” a senior security official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, told NBC News.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an armed ethnic group that has waged a yearslong insurgency against the Pakistani government, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said it was seeking the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists and others within 48 hours, threatening to execute hostages if the government did not comply.
Security officials said 27 militants had been killed so far in the operation to free the remaining hostages, whose exact number is unclear.
The BLA said none of its fighters had been killed and claimed the hostages had not been freed but that it had “released all the women, children, sick and Baloch civilians.”
The 11 people killed in the initial attack included the train driver and eight paramilitary troopers, security officials said. Thirty-seven others were injured, including two Pakistan army officers who were airlifted to a military hospital for treatment.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned what he called the “cowardly attack.”
“Targeting innocent passengers during the peaceful and blessed month of Ramadan clearly reflects that these terrorists have no connection with Islam, Pakistan or Balochistan,” he said. “The fight against terrorism will continue until this menace is completely eradicated from the country.”
The nine-coach train remains stuck in the tunnel, with the area cordoned off by security forces.
“We have beefed up security in Bolan in view of the situation,” said Rana Muhammad Dilawar, head of the District Police Office.
Security officials said 80 hostages who were released Tuesday night, including 43 men, 26 women and 11 children, had reached safety at a railway station in the Mach district of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest, least populated and least developed province.
They said the hostages had to walk for several hours during the night before boarding a cargo train because the railway track had been damaged by militants.
The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan, a resource-rich province that borders Afghanistan and Iran, and its ethnic Baloch minority.
“The main reasons why the conflict continues after decades is because the establishment is antidemocratic, U.S.-supported activities in neighboring Afghanistan have fueled instability, and terrorism in Pakistan is rampant,” said Rizwan Ullah Kobab, chair of the department of history at Government College University in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Militant violence has surged in Balochistan since U.S.-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, allowing the Taliban to return to power. Pakistan and Afghanistan have accused each other of supporting antigovernment insurgencies in each other’s countries.
The BLA carries out frequent attacks against Pakistani security forces but has also attacked civilians, including Chinese nationals working on infrastructure projects.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that Beijing strongly condemned the train attack and “will continue to support Pakistan in its counterterrorism efforts.”
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar, and Jennifer Jett and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.
