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Dozens of train passengers have been taken hostage after an attack by separatist militants in Pakistan, local police have confirmed.
The Baloch Liberation Army, a group seeking independence for the Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, claimed to have taken 182 hostages and killed 20 soldiers.
But Pakistani police later said that armed men took 35 passengers with them – and that nearly 350 of the roughly 400 passengers on board are believed to be safe.
The militant group claims that civilian passengers were released and given a secure route out while military personnel were held hostage. “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.”
Pakistani security forces said an explosion was heard near the tunnel and that they had exchanged fire with militants in a mountainous area. Three security officials told the Associated Press that BLA militants ambushed the train inside a tunnel and used women and children as human shields.
Troops launched an operation to rescue the hostages from BLA, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and Pakistan, the officials added.
The driver of the train, which was passing through the remote Bolan district on its way from the provincial capital of Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar, was wounded in the fighting.
Government spokesman Shahid Rind described it as an “act of terrorism”, adding that hospitals are on alert and ambulances have been dispatched – but access to the site is difficult due to the mountainous terrain.
The attack on the Jaffar Express was condemned by Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, who said the government would make no concessions to “beasts who fire on innocent passengers”.
Emergency measures have been imposed by the Balochistan government to deal with the situation, Mr Rind said, without giving further details.
Security personnel are typically on board trains in Balochistan due to previous train attacks – including a suicide bombing at a train station in Quetta which killed 26 people in November. At least 62 people were also wounded in the bombing, which killed railway staff, passengers and security personnel, according to officials.
The oil- and mineral-rich region is Pakistan’s largest but also least populated province. It is home to Pakistan’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
Several ethnic groups have been fighting the government for decades, arguing the region’s rich gas and mineral resources are being unfairly exploited.