ISLAMABAD: At least 31 people were killed during a two-day train siege in southwestern Pakistan carried out by militants, the country’s army spokesman said on Friday. Eighteen soldiers and paramilitary personnel, three railway employees, and five civilians were killed during the hostage situation that lasted over 30 hours, lieutenant general Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said during a presser.
Additionally, five soldiers died as “part of the operation” launched by security forces to retake control after Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatists stopped the Jaffar Express train with a bomb, Chaudhry added. “There are many injured and the death toll may rise,” he said. Authorities announced on Wednesday evening that “33 terrorists” who participated in the assault were also killed.
“More than 340 passengers were freed,” Mir Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan said during the presser in Islamabad. Islamabad accuses neighbouring Afghanistan of allowing militant groups safe haven to plan and launch attacks on its soil, a charge Kabul denies.
“The militants were in contact with their handlers in Afghanistan,” Sharif added. BLA has been active for more than two decades in the mountainous region of Balochistan, a province bordering Iran and Afghanistan. It claimed an attack in February that killed 17 paramilitary soldiers and a woman suicide bomber killed a soldier this month.
Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan but last year saw a surge in violence in the province, according to the independent Center for Research and Security Studies.
It found 2024 was the deadliest year for Pakistan in a decade, with violence rising along the Afghanistan border since the Taliban took back power in Kabul in 2021.
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