Jaffar Express attack: 21 passengers, 4 FC personnel lost lives as security forces kill ‘all terrorists’: DG ISPR

Terrorists that attacked on Jaffar Express train in Balochistan killed 21 passengers and 4 Frontier Corps (FC), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) said on Wednesday while talking to a local TV channel.

The DG ISPR said security forces killed 33 terrorists during the clearance operation. He mentioned that the terrorists had killed 21 passengers before the forces could reach them, and no civilian was harmed during the operations.

Four FC personnel also lost their lives fighting against train attackers, he added.

Terrorists blew up a railway track and opened fire on a passenger train in Balochistan province on Tuesday, taking dozens of hostages and battling security forces conducting a rescue operation, police said.

The incident happened around 1:00 pm (0800 GMT) in rural Sibi district on Tuesday, near to a city station where the train had been due to stop.

The train had left Quetta for Peshawar, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – a more than 30-hour journey.

At that time, police could not specify how many passengers were taken hostage in the remote mountainous area but the terrorists claimed they were holding 214 people, and had threatened to start executing them.

“The affected train is still on the spot and the armed men are holding passengers,” senior district police officer Rana Dilawar said then.

“Security forces launched a massive operation,” he said then, adding that helicopters and special forces had been deployed.

Moreover, terrorists had positioned suicide bombers next to some innocent hostages using them as human shield, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

The train was trapped in a tunnel and the driver was killed after sustaining serious injuries, local authorities, police and railway officials said.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, said it blew up the tracks and “swiftly took control of the train”. The group said it would execute 10 people in response to the ongoing military operation.

The BLA demanded the release within 48 hours of Baloch political prisoners, activists and missing persons it claimed had been arrested by the military.

“BLA is prepared for a prisoner exchange,” the group said then.

“If our demands are not met within the stipulated period or if the occupying state attempts any military action during this time all prisoners of war will be neutralised and the train will be completely destroyed.”

The BLA claimed the hostages included Pakistan Army members and other security officials travelling on leave.

Dilawar said some of the terrorists had taken a group of around 35 hostages into the mountains while others were still holding the locomotive.

He had previously said that over 300 hostages were safe but security officials have since announced that 104 people have been rescued so far.

Security forces said an explosion had been heard near the tunnel and that they were exchanging fire with the militants in a mountainous area.

A security source who asked not to be identified told Reuters many people had lost their lives in the attack, adding that 80 military personnel were among the 425 passengers aboard the train.

Another security source said 104 passengers had been rescued, 17 wounded taken to hospital and 16 militants had been killed, adding the rest were surrounded.

“The operation will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated,” they said then.

Executions threatened

“Civilian passengers, particularly women, children, the elderly, and Baloch citizens, have been released safely and given a secure route,” the BLA said in a statement emailed to journalists and posted on Telegram.

“The BLA further warns that if military intervention continues, all hostages will be executed.”

President, PM condemn attack

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the cowardly terrorist attack on the Jaffar Express.

The president said attacks on unarmed civilians and passengers are inhumane and those involved in this attack are against Balochistan and its traditions, Radio Pakistan reported.

He said the Baloch nation rejects those who attack and hold hostage, the unarmed passengers, elderly and children.

“No religion or society allows such wicked acts,” President Zardari said.

Similarly, the PM condemned the attack and said that the security forces are taking timely and prompt action and will soon succeed in their operation.

The beastly terrorists, who carry out such attacks do not deserve any mercy, they are enemies of Balochistan’s development, the PM said.

PM Shehbaz added that terrorists’ targeting of innocent passengers in Ramadan testifies that they have no connection either with the religion Islam or with Pakistan and Balochistan.