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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dalvinder45" data-source="post: 226415" data-attributes="member: 26009">Nearly 350 hostages were rescued at the end of a deadly standoff between Pakistan's military and armed militants who hijacked a train in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan.  The incident, which began Tuesday, left dozens dead. At least 35 militants were killed in the rescue operation, the security source added.Some eyewitness even state that they have seen over 100 bodies of the hostages. This claim is yet to be verified.  The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group active in the restive and mineral-rich Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the attack.Around 450 passengers were on the Jaffer Express en route from Balochistan’s capital Quetta to Peshawar in the north, when militants opened “intense gunfire” as the train traveled through a tunnel early in its journey, according to officials. Pakistan’s military then launched an operation to confront the attackers who used “women and children as shields,” according to security sources not authorized to speak to CNN.Passenger Mohammad Ashraf told CNN he saw more than 100 armed individuals on the train and that no harm was inflicted on women and children.One rescued woman described scenes of chaos following the attack, likening it to the “Day of Judgement.” She told she fled gunfire and walked for two hours to reach safety. Survivor Arslan Yousaf recalled the terrifying moment the hijacking began. “As soon as the explosion happened, armed men stormed the train. They had launchers, guns, and other weapons, and they immediately started firing – shooting directly at people,” he told Reuters. “They kept shouting, ‘We will kill anyone who doesn’t come out.’ Then, things took a darker turn. They began checking everyone’s ID cards - Punjabis, Sindhis, Baloch. They separated us into groups. Sometimes, they took soldiers outside and executed them. Other times, they targeted specific individuals. If they had a grudge against someone, they shot him on the spot.” There were number of soldiers going on transfer or leave in that train who  were shot point blank.Muhammad Tanveer, who was held hostage for two days, told Reuters the hostages didn’t have any food and had to resort to drinking water from the train’s washroom. “Then, last night (Wednesday), our army arrived. By evening, they had cleared everything. They gave us protection, served us food and water, and took care of the situation,” he said.The security sources accused the militants of being in contact with handlers in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military and government have long accused Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to militant groups, something its Taliban leaders have denied.<img src="https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/2025-03-12t024822z-1360495310-rc2bbdafvgu6-rtrmadp-3-pakistan-attack.JPG?q=w_1110,c_fill" alt="Passengers who were rescued from the train after it was attacked by separatist militants sit at Mach railway station in Balochistan, Pakistan, on Tuesday." class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Passengers who were rescued from the train after it was attacked by separatist militants sit at Mach railway station in Balochistan, Pakistan, on Tuesday.  (Reuters)Tuesday’s kidnapping is an audacious moment for a separatist insurgency that seeks greater political autonomy and economic development in the strategically important and mineral-rich mountainous region. But it also highlights the ever-deteriorating security situation there – one that Pakistan’s government has been grappling with for decades. Balochistan’s population – made up mostly of the ethnic Baloch group – is deeply disenfranchised, impoverished, and has grown increasingly alienated from the federal government by decades of policies widely seen as discriminatory.An insurgency there has been ongoing for decades but has gained traction in recent years since the province’s deep-water Gwadar port was leased to China, the jewel in the crown of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure push in Pakistan. The port, often touted as “the next Dubai,” has become a security nightmare with persistent bombings of vehicles carrying Chinese workers, resulting in many deaths.Some analysts said Tuesday’s attack marked an escalation in the sophistication of attacks by the insurgents. The “larger point that the Pakistani state is not grasping … is that it’s not business as usual anymore,” said Abdul Basit, a senior associate fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/pakistan-gwadar-airport-china-intl-hnk" target="_blank"><img src="https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gettyimages-2182357926.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_144,w_256,c_fill" alt="This photo taken on September 13, 2024 shows a terminal at the New Gwadar International Airport in Gwadar, Pakistan." class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/pakistan-gwadar-airport-china-intl-hnk" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/pakistan-gwadar-airport-china-intl-hnk" target="_blank"></a>“The insurgency has evolved both in its strategy and scale,” he added, saying Pakistan’s approach to tackle the Baloch militants “seems to have run its course.” “Instead of revising its counterproductive policies, it is persisting with them, resulting in recurrent security and intelligence failures,” Basit said. The BLA has been responsible for the deadliest attacks in Pakistan in the past year. A suicide bombing by the BLA at a train station in Quetta killed more than two dozen people last November. The previous month, it claimed responsibility  for an attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers, resulting in two deaths.In the wake of Tuesday’s attack, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to “continue to fight against the monster of terrorism until it is completely eradicated from the country.” In a statement, he said the “terrorists’ targeting of innocent passengers during the peaceful and blessed month of Ramadan is a clear reflection that these terrorists have no connection with the religion of Islam, Pakistan and Balochistan.”Analysts say such attacks need urgent attention from the federal government. “Tuesday’s attack has gained global attention and it will worry China, which has its investments in the province – more than any other state,” Basit said. “A major reset of existing security paradigm is required in Balochistan.”</blockquote>

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