LONDON: Baloch Human Rights Council Information Secretary Khurshid Ahmed on Thursday said that the Jaffar Express hijacking had shown that the Baloch freedom fighters were getting stronger.
“This incident shows that Pakistan is getting weaker. Whereas the Baloch freedom fighters are getting stronger in Balochistan. Even in such harsh conditions, the Baloch freedom fighters followed the human rights standards and let the elderly women and families go back to Quetta. They took many Army personnel hostage and demanded the release of Baloch people who had disappeared. We think that such incidents will not stop in the future. We have been seeing the Baloch freedom fighters, particularly BLA, has been attacking Pakistan-China projects in Balochistan. BLA is defending its motherland. The situation in Balochistan demands that India and Western powers should support Baloch’s national struggle,” he said.
Earlier, ISPR Pakistan DG Lt Gen Sharif Chaudhry has said that the Jaffar Express clearance operation, launched after the train’s hijacking in Balochistan, was complete. He added that all rebels, 33 in total, at the site of the attack had been killed.
“On March 11 in Bolan, terrorists targeted a railroad track around 1pm and blew it up and stopped the Jaffar Express. According to railway officials, the train had 440 passengers,” he said while speaking in an interview on news channel.
Chaudhry said the army, air force, Frontier Corps (FC) and the Special Services Group had taken part and recovered the hostages. He added that no passenger was hurt in the final clearance operation, but before that, “the number of passengers who fell victim to the barbarism of the terrorists is 21.”
Earlier PTV citing security officials had said that at least 190 passengers had been freed after terrorists hijacked the Jaffar Express. The hostage situation began on Tuesday near the Mashkaf Tunnel, about 157 kilometres from Quetta, when BLA rebels attacked the Jaffar Express and took more than 400 passengers hostage, including numerous security personnel.
There was no confirmation of the total number of casualties, but officials told Dawn News that at least 30 people — including the driver of the locomotive and eight security personnel — had lost their lives as the forces engaged in a gun battle.
Meanwhile, Naseem Baloch, chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), criticized the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad for what he described as its failure to acknowledge serious human rights violations in Balochistan, reported the Balochistan Post.
The BNM chairman’s scatching remarks came after a social media statement that the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad posted on their X account condemning the Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) seizure of the Quetta-bound Jaffar Express train.
Expressing deep concern over the U.S. Embassy’s stance, Naseem. Baloch accused Washington of endorsing Pakistan’s “fabricated narratives” while ignoring the worsening human rights situation in Balochistan. He alleged that despite presenting itself as a democracy, Pakistan is engaged in enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and war crimes in the region.