Pakistan train hijack: Militants with bomb vests sitting next to hostages; empty coffins transported

Pakistan’s forces on Wednesday refrained from launching frontal attacks inside a train hijacked by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants. Despite the authorities’ efforts, 250 passengers are still being held hostage.

Pakistan train hijack: An injured passenger rescued by security forces from a passenger train attacked by insurgents arrive at a railway station in Much near Quetta.(AP)

Pakistan’s junior interior minister told GEO TV that the security operation was complicated because of the remote location of the train and concerns about hostage safety. The militants are wearing vests loaded with explosives and are sitting next to the passengers.

The BLA derailed the train in a tunnel in Bolan in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Tuesday. Its spokesman Jeeyand Baloch has asked Pakistan to release jailed militants in exchange for the passengers.

30 militants had been killed on Tuesday, and around 190 passengers of the total 450 were rescued. Helicopters were backing up Pakistani forces in the rugged region. Rescued passengers were being sent to their hometowns and the injured were being treated at hospitals in the Mach district.

Muhammad Ashraf, who was on the train, said some of the passengers died in the attack, including the train driver.

BLA militants with bombs strapped to their bodies were sitting next to other passengers, a security source told Reuters.

“The militants have made some suicide bombers sit right next to some hostage passengers,” he added.

The group has said it will execute the hostages if Pakistan doesn’t release prisoners.

“Comrades are shedding their blood for you, for this motherland,” one of its fighters on the train said in a Telegram message that urged people in mineral-rich Balochistan to join the group’s fight against Pakistan’s government.

A Reuters journalist, meanwhile, saw nearly 100 vacant coffins at Quetta railway station, where more of those aboard the Jaffer Express were expected to arrive.

“So far, 190 passengers have been rescued, and 30 terrorists have been killed. Due to the presence of women and children with suicide bombers, extreme caution is being exercised,” security sources told AFP.

Several passengers told AFP that gunmen checked their IDs and killed security personnel.

With inputs from agencies