Pakistan's prime minister travelled to the restive southwestern province of Balochistan on Thursday to meet survivors of a train attack and commandos who rescued more than 300 passengers from insurgents who killed 21 civilians and four soldiers.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a banned group behind numerous deadly attacks in recent months, claimed responsibility for the incident, which began on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday, with soldiers killing all 33 insurgents in an operation that the military said did not result in any further deaths of passengers.
The train was heading from the Balochistan capital Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar when insurgents blew up the tracks, forcing nine carriages and the locomotive of the Jafer Express to a partial stop in a tunnel.
The BLA regularly attacks Pakistani security forces and trains, but they have never managed to hijack a single train in the past. They have also targeted foreigners, including Chinese workers, thousands of whom are involved in multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects in Balochistan.
Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and least populated province. Members of the Baloch ethnic minority say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
Amid tight security, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet members were received by senior government officials upon their arrival at the airport in Quetta, his office said. No further details were provided.
Authorities said they were taking steps to transport the victims' bodies to their hometowns and that the wounded were receiving medical care.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad that the BLA attackers who hijacked the train were in touch with their handlers in Afghanistan.
“Our security forces successfully killed all 33 terrorists, including the suicide bombers, and rescued the hostages,” he said.
Mr Khan said the attackers were “in direct communication with Afghanistan-based planners throughout the incident” and Pakistan had repeatedly asked Kabul “to deny terrorist groups like the BLA the use of its territory for their attacks against Pakistan”.
“We call on Afghanistan to hold accountable the perpetrators, organizers and financiers of this heinous act of terrorism and to work with the Government of Pakistan to bring to justice all those involved in this attack, including the real sponsors of terrorism,” Mr. Khan said.
In a statement released last night, the military said it had “confirmed intelligence” indicating the attack was “organized and directed by terrorist leaders operating from Afghanistan who were in direct communication with the terrorists throughout the incident.”
In Kabul, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's foreign ministry, rejected Pakistan's accusations, saying: “We are saddened by the loss of innocent lives in the incident.”
However, the military in its statement urged the Afghan Taliban government to fulfil its obligations and not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities against Pakistan.
According to a military statement, “the terrorists blew up the railway tracks, seized the train and took passengers hostage, including women, children and the elderly, using them as human shields.”
Most survivors said the attackers opened fire through the train's windows, entered the carriages and killed or wounded people, then took them hostage.
Three soldiers guarding the railway line were also killed, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said.
Pakistani security forces killed 10 militants after spotting them near a military facility in South Waziristan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
Authorities said the dead were members of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTT. The group is an ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan and has grown emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power there in 2021.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
