Pakistani insurgents took over a passenger train carrying an estimated 500 people on Tuesday, with the separatists threatening to kill some 182 hostages if their demands are not met.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) blew up the tracks for the Jaffar Express train traveling through a tunnel in southwest Balochistan, killing at least 20 people in a subsequent shootout before hijacking the locomotive, local officials said.
The BLA claimed it freed all civilians on board the train, keeping about 182 alleged military and police personnel as hostages to exchange for the release of prisoners belonging to the separatist group.
The BLA, who has engaged in “intense” shootouts with responding forces, warned the Pakistani military to not interfere in the intense confrontation or else “all hostages will be executed.”
Balochistan officials have denied that there are any military officers on the train, slamming the attack as “an act of terrorism” threatening the lives of innocent civilians.
Imran Hayat, a senior official for Pakistan Railways, also refuted the BLA’s claim that it only killed Pakistani soldiers, noting that the train conductor was also killed in the assault, CNN reports.
Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, slammed the attack and said the government will not cede to the BLA’s demands.
“The beasts who fire on innocent passengers do not deserve any concessions,” Naqvi said in a statement.
The Balochistan government said emergency measures are in place to deal with the situation, with the Sibi Hospital declaring a state of emergency to respond to the assault, officials said.
The attack came just days after Balochistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department warned of a possible “planned attack” by the BLA in the region, calling on the province to be on high alert, according to CNN.
The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province that serves as a hub for the nation’s Baloch minority group.
The BLA, which has been responsible for the deadliest attacks in Pakistan over the past year, has accused the government of exploiting Balochistan’s rich resources without sharing the profits to the nation’s poorest province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
Tuesday’s attack is only the latest assault from the BLA on the region’s mass transit system.
The separatists were behind the suicide bombing at a train station in Quetta that killed 26 people in November.
The bombings on the railway have also led to the deaths of many Chinese workers in the region carrying out Beijing-led projects in Pakistan.
With Post wires