More than 100 people were rescued after being held hostage after a train in Pakistan was hijacked. Security officials are seen here standing guard after rail services were suspended. Photo by Fayyaz Ahmed/EPA-EFE
Pakistan freed 190 hijacked train passengers held hostage Wednesday as the battle to free remaining hostages held by the militant group Baloch Liberation Army continued.
Pakistan security officials said Wednesday that 30 of the militants had been killed while roughly 130 hostages were still held by the militants after the BLA attacked the Jaffar Express train and blew up train tracks Tuesday, killing 11 people. Attempts to rescue them have so far been fought off by the militants. Advertisement
The BLA blew up the train tracks as the train entered a tunnel in the mountainous Balochistan province. Many of the BLA militants reportedly wore explosive vests.
“They are using these hostages as human shields,” a senior Pakistani security official told NBC News.
Approximately 214 soldiers and security personnel were onboard the attacked train. Eighty hostages were released Tuesday evening and had to walk for hours at night to board a cargo train.
“Targeting innocent passengers during the peaceful and blessed month of Ramadan clearly reflects that these terrorists have no connection with Islam, Pakistan or Balochistan,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shebez Sharif said in statement.
The BLA said it wants what it called Baloch political prisoners and activists released within 48 hours. They threatened to kill the hostages if the government failed to agree to the releases. Advertisement
The BLA has waged an armed struggle for independence of Balochistan against Pakistan. In a statement, they said the train attack was “a direct response to Pakistan’s decades-long colonial occupation of Balochistan and the relentless war crimes committed against the Baloch people.”
The militant attackers used rockets, grenades and guns.
“There was a huge blast. Everyone was scared and people were screaming and crying loudly. We laid down during the blasts. Everyone laid down in the train as there was firing too,” Witness Yousaf Bashir told The Guardian.
