https://arab.news/nqpg9
- BLA says five military troops killed, hundreds of passengers in custody, claims not confirmed by officials
- Low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan is one of the chronic security problems undermining stability in Pakistan
QUETTA: Separatist militants on Tuesday attacked a passenger train operated daily from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to other parts of the country, injuring the driver, a Pakistan Railways official said.
A low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan is one of the chronic security problems undermining stability in Pakistan. The separatists accuse the government of stripping the province’s natural resources and leaving its people mired in poverty. They say security forces routinely abduct, torture and execute ethnic Baloch, accusations echoed by human rights campaigners. Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are uplifting the province through development projects, including multi-billion dollar schemes funded by Beijing.
Insurgents in the province also target civilians, especially Pakistanis from other ethnic groups who have settled in Balochistan.
The latest attack on the Quetta-Peshawar bound Jaffar Express occurred in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan. The Baloch Liberation Army, the most prominent among separatist outfits operating in the province, accepted responsibility in a statement sent to the media.
“A driver of the train was injured after armed men targeted the train with heavy firing,” Muhammad Farrukh, a Pakistani Railway official in Quetta, told Arab News. “We are unable to contact railway staff in the area because mobile service is not working in the area.”
He said there were 400 people onboard the train but could not confirm if they were safe.
The BLA said it had blown up the railway track, forcing the Jaffar Express to come to a halt.
“The fighters swiftly took control of the train, holding all passengers hostage,” the group said, adding that six military troops had been killed. The claims have not yet been confirmed by government officials or the army, which plays an outsized role in the running of the remote province, bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Separatists have also recently attacked projects being developed as part of the $65-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. The program is also developing a deep-water port close to the new $200-million airport in Gwadar, a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman and China.