A view of the Quetta station after the Peshawar-Quetta Jaffar Express train was attacked by armed men in Balochistan’s Mach area, in Quetta on Tuesday (March 11, 2025). | Photo Credit: Reuters/ANI Grab
Pakistani troops freed dozens of train passengers taken hostage by armed militants in the country’s southwest on Tuesday (March 11, 2025), with hundreds more still being held in the deadly siege.
Security sources said that heavy gunfire was ongoing between security forces and the militants. 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, both at Mach railway station.
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Gunmen forced the train to a halt in a remote, mountainous area of Balochistan province on Tuesday afternoon, with the assault immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group behind rising violence in the province which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
The Jaffar Express had left Quetta for Peshawar, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Security forces have freed 80 hostages, including 43 men, 26 women, and 11 children, from the terrorists,” security sources said, adding that 13 militants had been killed.
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“Efforts are ongoing to ensure the safe release of the remaining passengers. The terrorists have been surrounded, and the operation will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised.”
Earlier in the day, Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, said that “over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen.”
In a statement, the BLA said gunmen bombed the railway track before storming aboard the train.
Published – March 11, 2025 04:46 pm IST