QUETTA, Pakistan: Separatist militants blew up a railway track and opened fire on a passenger train in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday ( Mar 11 ), taking dozens of hostages and battling security forces conducting a rescue operation, police and the insurgents said.
Authorities have not specified how some people were taken prisoner in the rural mountainous area but the rebels said they were holding 214 individuals, and have threatened to begin executing them.
” The disturbed coach is still on the location and the military men are holding people”, top district police officer Rana Dilawar said.
” Security forces launched a large operation”, he said, adding that aircraft and special forces had been deployed.
The coach was trapped in a hole and the vehicle was killed after sustaining severe injury, local government, police and railroad officials said.
The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, said it blew up the tracks and” soon took command of the station”. The team said it would kill 10 people in response to the ongoing martial operation.
The BLA has demanded the launch within 48 hours of Baloch political prisoners, protesters and missing persons, it said had been abducted by the defense.
“BLA is prepared for a slave exchange”, the group said.
” If our needs are not met within the stipulated time or if the invading position attempts any military actions during this time all prisoners of war may be neutralised and the coach will be totally destroyed”.
The group, which seeks independence for Balochistan province bordering both Afghanistan and Iran, said the hostages included Pakistan Army members and other security officials travelling on leave.
Dilawar said some of the militants had taken a group of around 35 hostages into the mountains while others were still holding the locomotive. He had previously said that over 300 hostages were safe but security officials have since announced that 104 people have been rescued so far.
Security forces said an explosion had been heard near the tunnel and that they were exchanging fire with the militants in a mountainous area.
A security source who asked not to be identified said many people had lost their lives in the attack, adding that 80 military personnel were among the 425 passengers aboard the train.
Another security source said 104 passengers had been rescued, 17 wounded taken to hospital and 16 militants had been killed, adding the rest were surrounded.
” The operation will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated”, they said.
The BLA said it has not suffered any casualties. It said it had killed 30 soldiers and shot down a drone. There was no confirmation of that from Pakistani authorities.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, saying security officials were “repelling” the militants.