The tragedy of “Jaafar Express” .. detention of 450 hostages inside a train in Pakistan

Gunmen detained more than 450 hostages of train passengers in Balochistan, southwest of Pakistan, after his driver was injured, on Tuesday.

“More than 450 passengers, including women and children, were held hostages by gunmen,” said Mohamed Kashef, an official in Balochistan railways.

Local and other police officials confirmed this attack by the Balochistan Liberation Army, the main separatist group in this border region of Iran and Afghanistan.

“Gunmen forced the Jaafar Express train to stop, detain passengers hostage, and the driver wounded,” said a senior official in the city of Sibi, where the train was intercepted.

The Balochistan Liberation Army said in a statement that it “destroyed the railway with explosives, forcing the Jaafar Express train to stop.”

A video clip circulating on social media platforms showed the moment the railway is bombed, while it was not possible to verify.

A senior police official indicated that the train was “being shown at the entrance to a tunnel in the mountains”, while Sibi Hospital was placed on alert, according to the same source..

The Balochistan Liberation Army regularly claims its responsibility for bloody attacks on the security forces and the Pakistani from other regions and states, and accuses them, along with foreign investors, of looting their resource -rich area without allowing the local population to benefit from this wealth.

The region is considered rich in hydrocarbons and minerals, but its residents complain of marginalization and deprivation of benefiting from these natural resources, which made it the poorest region in Pakistan.

Last August, the Balochistan Liberation Army fighters killed 39 people, after checking the identity cards of travelers on different roads before they were shot if they were from Punjab, who are seen as dominating the army involved in the battle against the separatists.

Pakistan has witnessed an increase in attacks, especially by militants and separatists, especially in Balochistan and the region of Khyber Petmongoa, which is also located on the border with Afghanistan..

The estimates of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad indicate that the year 2024 was the bloodiest in nearly a decade, as more than 1,600 people were killed in separate attacks, including 685 members of the security forces.