How did the train abduction in Pakistan unfold

Mehboob Hussain rode the train at home on Tuesday when the tracks under the front car burst out.

In the depths of the Bolala Pass in Central Pakistan, a desert pocket so remote that there is no internet or mobile network, the nine-coach Jaffar Express Ground. Then the bullets started flying.

“I was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Hussein told BBC Urdu.

He, along with about 440 others, was traveling from Queta to Peshawar through the heart of the province of Asiv Belokistan as they encountered a group of armed fighters – they bombed the tracks, fired on the train and then stormed the carriages.

The Belokistan Liberation Army (BLA) quickly took responsibility for the siege and threatened to kill many of those on board if the Pakistani authorities did not release political prisoners in Baloch within 48 hours.

The group that many countries have identified a terrorist organization has set decades of rebellion to gain independence for Belokistan, accusing Islamabad into operation The rich mineral resources of the province, while neglecting it.

BLA fighters have a long history of attack on military camps, railway stations and trains in the region.

But that was the first time they abducted.

The siege lasted over 30 hours. Authorities say 300 passengers have already been released and 33 BLA fighters, 21 civilian hostages and four military officials have been killed. But the conflict figures suggest that many passengers remain undesirable.

The information related to the attack and the subsequent rescue operation is strictly controlled everywhere.

But BBC managed to talk Numerous eyewitnesses who described “The Scenes of the Day Day” aboard the train until the attack unfolded.

As Ishak Noor told the BBC Urdu of those first few moments: “We kept our breath throughout the shooting without knowing what will happen afterwards.”

The train police officer who was aboard the train told the BBC Urdu that contrary to the original reports of the Pakistani authorities, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was struck.

BLA also released a supposed video the moment the train was struck by the blast. It shows an open section of the track that moves along the base of a large rocky slope.

At the top of this slope, according to the video is a cluster of BLA fighters.

The officer described to the BBC how he initially “fought with other police officers” to try to support the fighters until “ammunition did not expire”.

“They (BLA) were moving in front of us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” recalled the officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. He noted that he was accompanied by four rail police officers and two members of the Pakistani Paraly Border Corps (FC).

At least 100 of those on the train were members of the security forces, according to Pakistani officials.

“I told my companion to give me the G-3 rifle because it was a better weapon,” the officer explained. “When I got the rifle and the circles, we also started shooting back. I fired a shot in them so that the train could not approach us … (but) After an hour and a half, our circles were over … We were helpless.”

When the shooting from those on board Jaffar Express stopped, the fighters got off the surrounding mountains and began to remove the passengers from the train, the officer said.

“They began to check cards and tell people to go that way, in this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages were divided into groups with the train, according to their ethnicity.

The fighters spoke in Balochi's language, he added, saying: “We made requests to the government and if they were not met, we would not spare anyone; We will set the vehicle on fire. “

The officer claims that the fighters receive orders: “They will receive murder orders and will take people from the group and kill them. They killed many people – both from army staff and civilians.”

However, some passengers were allowed to leave unharmed – including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Belokistan, according to G -Noor.

Among the released was Noor Mohammed. He said that when the initial firing stopped after an hour, armed men forced the door to the train and entered, saying “Get out or will shoot you.”

Mohammed said he was accompanied by the train, and when he told the fighters that his wife was still in the back of the car, they also brought her out. Then they “told us to go straight and not to look back.”

The couple went through the desert, he said, and with “great difficulty” reached the Panir railway station around 7:00 pm where they rested.

His wife reminded him of the moment the military arrived in Pakistan to meet them.

“They told me,” Ma'am, go inside us, we will take you safely home, “she said. The soldiers took the couple to the city of match, she added: “And then we reached the quet with our children who were waiting for us.”

Some passengers who managed to leave the train late on Tuesday night have said they went for about four hours to reach the next train station. They included Mohammed Ashraf, who drove the train to Lahore to visit his family.

“We got to the station with great difficulties,” he told the BBC Urdu, “because we were tired and had children and women with us.”

As the night was descending over Jaffar Express, dozens of BLA fighters began to leave, according to a police officer who did not want to point out.

“Many of them hugged and 70, 80 people left, while 20, 25 remained behind them,” he said.

Around 10:00 pm, he recalled, violence broke out again.

“Some people tried to escape, they (BLA) saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” the employee said.

Mehbob similarly recalled the shooting all night – and said that at one point a man close to him, who has five daughters, was shot.

“When someone is killed before your eyes, you don't know what to do,” he said.

Another passenger, Allahdita, said his cousin was killed in front of him by BLA. He said his cousin is praying for his fighters not to kill him, as he has young daughters, but “his life is not spared.”

BBC on Wednesday saw dozens of wooden coffins to be loaded at Queta Railway Station. The railway officer said they were empty and transported to collect victims.

It was during the morning prayer on Wednesday that the rescuers of FC began firing at the Blaz's fighters, said G -n Allahdita.

Against the backdrop of sudden chaos, he and others were released.

“When the FC opened fire during the Fire's call for prayer, we escaped from the fighters,” said Allahdita.

The police officer similarly recalled the moment the FC moved, briefly deflecting the focus of BLA fighters away from the hostages.

“When FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to that direction,” the employee said. “I told my companion,” Let's try to escape. “

The fighters fired at escapes as they escaped, and the official employee said his companion was hit from behind.

“He told me to let him go. I said no, I would carry you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined the hands and we went down the hills and the shooting.”

G -N Mehbob, G -N Allahdita, the police officer and his companion managed to escape from Jaffar Express Alive while the FC attacked the fighters.

Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters have surrounded the sedentary train on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed hostage participants and cleared the place, according to a military speaker.

Authorities said there were 440 passengers on the train – and 300 of them were released. But it is not yet clear what happened to the other 140. Reuters and AFP quoted an unnamed security officer who said some millions had left, taking an unknown number of passengers with them.

The military says it still works to find passengers who have fled and escaped into the area and insists that all other abduction participants will be tried.

G -Noor, who is now spreading alms and charity in his hometown with his wife, is simply grateful that he has escaped the situation with his life.

“Thank goodness,” said G -Noor. “He saved us.”