Pakistan: Hostages killed as Balochistan train siege ends
A number of hostages on a train in southwestern Pakistan were killed, officials said on Wednesday, a day after insurgents attacked the train in the restive Balochistan region.
Around 450 were traveling on the Jaffar Express in the remote frontier province when it was attacked by Baloch separatists on Tuesday. Pakistani forces responded to the attack overnight.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said "people have also been martyred, but we will share details later."
Officials said the attack has now ended and all the gunmen have been killed, as well as a number of passengers who had been taken hostage.
"Our operation has entered its final phase. All the militants have been killed, and commandos are now advancing to enter the rail cars," a Pakistani official told Germany's DPA news agency on condition of anonymity.
"We don't yet know how many passengers have been killed. We still have to count the bodies," they added.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it executed around 50 hostages.
Overnight, around 190 hostages were freed by Pakistani forces.
Hundreds of passengers taken hostage
On Tuesday, around 100 gunmen blew up a stretch of train track and fired at the Jaffar Express, which was traveling from the regional capital Quetta to Peshawar.
The train had around 450 passengers on board, both civilians and a large number of security personnel.
The BLA gunmen took all of the passengers hostage and threatened to kill them unless members of the separatist militant group were released from prison.
However, the Pakistani government refused to negotiate with the gunmen and instead launched an overnight operation to free the hostages.
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