Militants attack Pakistan train, taking over 450 passengers hostage - UPDATED -VIDEO
Armed militants took more than 450 train passengers hostage and wounded the train driver in an attack on Tuesday in Pakistan's volatile southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.
In a statement claiming the the assault, the Baloch liberation Army (BLA) said gunmen bombed the railway track and took control of the train in remote Sibi district, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
"Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen," Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told AFP.
A senior police official from the area bordering Sibi, who asked not be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that "the train remains stuck just before a tunnel surrounded by mountains".
The area where the train is halted is a mountainous region making it easier for militants to have hideouts and plan attacks.
An emergency has been imposed in the surrounding hospitals according to a senior police official.
Militants opened fire on a passenger train in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, injuring the train driver and causing panic among passengers, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The Jaffar Express, with around 400 passengers on board in nine bogies, was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, railway officials said. Authorities have yet to provide details on the extent of the damage or whether additional injuries were reported among passengers.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group, has claimed responsibility for the assault. In a statement, the BLA also claimed to have taken hostages from the train, including security personnel.
According to reports on local media, the militant group claimed that six military personnel were killed in the attack. The group also stated that hundreds of passengers were being held captive. In a ominous warning, the BLA threatened to execute all hostages if Pakistan attempted to launch a military rescue operation.
Security forces have been dispatched to the area, and an investigation into the attack is underway.
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