Armed militants have taken 450 passengers hostage and wounded the train driver during a ‘terrorist attack’ in Pakistan’s volatile southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army has threatened to execute all the hostages it has in its custody if the Pakistani authorities attempt to intervene.
‘Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,’ Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told reporters.
The train was trapped inside a tunnel after the attack, during which it came under fire and the driver was wounded, police and railway officials said.
In a statement, the BLA claimed responsibility for the hijacking and said six military personnel had been killed in the gunfight.
The group said they had taken hostages from the train, including security forces, with the exact number in their custody unclear.
‘During this operation, BLA fighters have released women, children, and Baloch passengers, ensuring that all remaining hostages are serving personnel of the occupying forces,’ the group said in a statement.
No contact has been established with the 450 passengers and staff aboard the nine-coach train, railway officials told local media.
The Jaffar Express had been on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, officials said.
