Operation against hijacked train complete, 33 separatists killed, says Pakistan army

A military operation against militants who hijacked a train carrying hundreds of passengers in southwest Pakistan has ended, a spokesman for the army said late on Wednesday.

Some 33 militants and 21 hostages were killed during the operation, the spokesman said in a television broadcast.

Dozens of separatist Balochi militants blew up a railway track and lobbed rockets on Tuesday at the Jaffar Express, carrying more than 400 passengers, authorities said previously.

Some of the militants wore suicide vests and were seated among the hostages, the government said, complicating rescue efforts.

Attacks by separatist groups who accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, have soared in the past few years.

Passengers rescued by security forces from a passenger train attacked by insurgents comfort each other upon their arrival at a railway station in Quetta. AP

The assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, who released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from mountainous hiding places and storming onto the carriages.

"Information suggests that some militants have fled, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous areas," a security official in the area told AFP.

Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in the provincial capital Quetta, told AFP on Tuesday afternoon that the 450 passengers on board had been taken hostage.

Passengers who were rescued from a train after it was attacked by separatist militants, walk with their belongings at the Railway Station in Quetta on Wednesday. Reuters

Passengers who walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety described being set free by the militants.

"Our women pleaded with them, and they spared us," Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian labourer told AFP on Wednesday.

"They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us."

Relatives of passengers of a train, which is attacked by insurgents, gather to get information about passengers from special counter at a railway station in Quetta. AP

At a railway station in Quetta, paramilitary troops brought empty coffins that will be sent to the site of the incident.

"I can't find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying," Muhammad Bilal, who had been travelling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train, told AFP. 

Outsiders identified

The BLA has staged a series of recent attacks against security forces and ethnic groups from outside the province they accuse of benefiting from the region's wealth.

The group has demanded an exchange with security forces for its imprisoned members.

The train driver, a police officer and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam.

An injured passenger rescued by security forces from a passenger train attacked by insurgents arrive at a railway station in Much near Quetta. AP

Several passengers told AFP that gunmen demanded to see identity cards to confirm who was from outside the province, similar to a spate of recent attacks carried out by the BLA.

"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," said one passenger who asked not to be identified, after walking four hours to the nearest train station.

"Those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists," he said.

Around 80 of the released passengers were taken to Quetta under "tight security," said a police official who was not authorised to speak to the media.

Agence France-Presse