'IDs scrutinised, Punjabis separated from the rest': Pakistan train hijack survivors recall stories of horror

Balochistan train hijack

Amid a 'full-scale' operation on Wednesday to rescue train passengers taken hostage by militants in the mountainous southwest, with security sources saying 190 had been freed in the past 24 hours, the hijack survivors recalled horrifying stories of forced scrutiny and the deliberate singling out of one community from the rest.

One survivor, identified as Muhammad Bilal, speaking to AFP said the escape from the train was beyond words. “I can’t find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying," Bilal told AFP. Another freed hostage, Allahditta, recounted the terror as BLA rebels stormed the train after the explosion.

More than 150 hostages were rescued by security forces from a passenger train hijacked by Baloch rebels in a tunnel in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The freed hostages described their experience as “terrifying”.

To verify the identity of people who were from outside of the Balochistan province, the BLA gunmen checked ID cards. A passenger told AFP: “They came and checked IDs and service cards and shot two soldiers in front of me and took the other four to, I don’t know where. They checked IDs and those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists."

The rebels bombed a section of the railway track and stormed the train on Tuesday afternoon in southwest Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, where attacks by separatists have risen sharply in the past year. Earlier in November last year, a suicide bomber killed 26 people and injured 62 others at the Quetta railway station after which several services were suspended by the Railways.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan, but violence has soared in the western border regions with Afghanistan, from north to south, since the Taliban took back power in 2021. The BLA claim the region's natural resources are being exploited by outsiders and have increased attacks targeting Pakistanis from other regions.