Pakistan News
‘Killed in front of our eyes’: How the Pakistan train hijacking unfolded
Mehboob Hussain was riding the train home on Tuesday when the tracks under the front car exploded.
In the depths of central Pakistan’s Bolan Pass, a pocket of wilderness so remote that there is no internet or mobile network coverage, the nine-coach Jaffar Express ground to a halt. Then the bullets started flying.
“I was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Mr Hussain told BBC Urdu.
He, along with some 440 others, had been travelling from Quetta to Peshawar through the heart of the restive Balochistan province when a group of armed militants struck – they bombed the tracks, fired on the train and then stormed the carriages.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) quickly claimed responsibility for the siege, and threatened to kill many of those on board if Pakistani authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners within 48 hours.
The group, which many countries have designated a terrorist organisation, has waged a decades-long insurgency to gain independence for Balochistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich mineral resources while also neglecting it.
BLA militants have a long history of attacking military camps, railway stations and trains in the region.
But this was the first time they had hijacked one.
The siege lasted over 30 hours. According to authorities, 300 passengers have now been freed, and 33 BLA militants, 21 civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed. But conflicting figures suggest many passengers remain unaccounted for.
Information relating to the attack and the subsequent rescue operation has been tightly controlled throughout.
But the BBC was able to speak tomultiple eyewitnesseses who described the “doomsday scenes” on board the train as the attack unfolded.
As Ishaq Noor told BBC Urdu of those first few moments: “We held our breath throughout the firing, not knowing what would happen next.”
A gunfight
A railway police officer who was on board the train told BBC Urdu that, contrary to initial reports from Pakistani authorities, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was hit.
The BLA has also released an alleged video of the moment the train was struck by the blast. It shows an open section of track that runs along the base of a large rocky slope.
Atop that slope, according to the video, is a cluster of BLA fighters.
The officer described to the BBC how he initially “fought together with other police officers” to try and hold off the militants until “the ammunition ran out”.
“They [the BLA] were moving in front of us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled. He noted that he was accompanied by four railway police and two members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier 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 is a better weapon,” the officer explained. “When I got the rifle and the rounds, we also started firing back. I used to fire one shot at a time at them so that they could not come near us and the train… [But] in an hour-and-half, our rounds were over… We were helpless.”
When the gunfire from those on board the Jaffar Express ceased, the militants came down from the surrounding mountains and started taking passengers off the train, the officer said.
“They started checking cards and telling people to go this way, this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages were separated into groups alongside the train, according to their ethnicity.
The militants were speaking in the Balochi language, he added, and declared, “We have made demands to the government and if they are not met, we will not spare anyone; we will set the vehicle on fire”.
The officer claimed the militants were receiving orders: “They would get orders to kill, and they would pick up people from the group and kill them. They killed many people – both army personnel and civilians.”
The first release
Some passengers, however, were allowed to leave unharmed – including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Balochistan, according to Mr Noor.
Among those released was Noor Muhammad. He said that when the initial volleys of gunfire stopped after an hour, armed men forced open the door to the train and entered, saying “get out or we will shoot you”.
Mr Muhammad said he was escorted off the train, and when he told the militants his wife was still in the back of the car, they brought her out too. Then they “told us to go straight and not look back”.
The couple walked through the wilderness, he said, and with “great difficulty” reached Panir Railway Station at about 1900, where they rested.
His wife recalled the moment the Pakistan military arrived to meet them.
“They told me, ‘ma’am, come inside with us, we will take you home safely,'” she said. The soldiers took the couple to the town of Machh, she added, “and then we reached Quetta to our children, who were waiting for us”.
Some passengers who managed to leave the train late on Tuesday evening said they walked for nearly four hours to reach the next railway station. They included Muhammad Ashraf, who had been riding the train to Lahore to visit his family.
“We reached the station with great difficulty,” he told BBC Urdu, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”
Shots in the night
As night descended over the Jaffar Express, scores of BLA militants began to depart, according to the police official who did not wish to named.
“Many of them hugged each other and 70, 80 people left while 20, 25 stayed behind,” he said.
At about 10pm, he recalled, violence erupted again.
“Some people tried to run away, they [the BLA] saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” the official said.
Mr Mehboob similarly recalled gunfire throughout the night – and said that at one point, a person close to him, who had five daughters, was shot.
“When someone is killed in front of your eyes, you don’t know what to do,” he said.
Another passenger, Allahditta, said his cousin was killed in front of him by the BLA. He said his cousin was pleading to the militants to not kill him as he had young daughters but “his life was not spared”.
The BBC on Wednesday saw dozens of wooden coffins being loaded at Quetta railway station. A railway official said they were empty and being transported to collect casualties.
Morning escape
It was during the time of morning prayer on Wednesday that rescuers from the FC started firing on the BLA militants, Mr Allahditta said.
Amid the sudden chaos, he and others broke free.
“When the FC opened fire at the time of the Fajr call to prayer, we escaped from the militants,” Mr Allahdita said.
The police official similarly recalled the moment when the FC moved in, briefly diverting the BLA militants’ focus away from the hostages.
“When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to this direction,” the official said. “I told my companion, ‘Let’s try to run away.'”
Militants fired on the escapees as they fled, and the official said his companion was hit from behind.
“He told me to let go of him. I said no, I’ll carry you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined hands and we went down the hills and out of firing range.”
Mr Mehboob, Mr Allahdita, the police official and his companion all managed to escape the Jaffar Express alive as the FC attacked the militants.
Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters had surrounded the stranded train since Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed the hostage-takers and cleared the site, according to a military spokesperson.
Authorities said there were 440 passengers on the train – and 300 of them have been freed. But it’s still unclear what happened to the remaining 140. Reuters and AFP quoted an unnamed security official who said some miliants had left, taking an unknown number of passengers with them.
The military says it is still working to find passengers who escaped and fled into the surrounding area, and insists that any others involved in the hijacking would be brought to justice.
Mr Noor, who is now distributing alms and charity in his hometown along with his wife, is just grateful to have escaped the situation with his life.
“Thank God,” Mr Noor said. “He saved us.”
Taken From BBC News
QUETTA: The business community in Quetta on Friday condemned India’s boycott campaign against Turkish and Azerbaijani products and the cancellation of travel tickets to these countries by Indian citizens, calling it a reflection of frustration over support extended to Pakistan by Ankara and Baku during the recent conflict.
Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Haji Muhammad Ayub Miriani, Senior Vice-President Haji Akhtar Kakar, Vice-President Engineer Mir Wais Khan Kakar and former QCCI president and business leader Haji Ghulam Farooq Khilji said that in light of India’s decision, “it is the responsibility of the government of Pakistan and the business community to come forward and establish strong trade relations with the brotherly Islamic countries — Turkiye and Azerbaijan”.
“The business community of Balochistan is ready to play a frontline role in this regard,” the leaders said in a discussion at the QCCI, adding that they “hope the government will also take steps for stronger trade ties with both the friendly countries”.
https://www.dawn.com/news/card/1911469
The business figures claimed that during the recent conflict, where Pakistan launched “Operation Bunyanum Marsoos,” India suffered “heavy losses” and is now “trying to cover up its failure by blaming countries like Turkiye, Azerbaijan, and China”.
They contended, “The Modi government and the Indian public, in fear of Pakistan’s allies, are now boycotting their products and cancelling confirmed tickets to their tourist destinations.”
They also emphasised Pakistan’s aspiration to expand global trade ties, noting that economic growth depends on international cooperation.
“Pakistan aspires to have good trade relations with all countries of the world and is striving for rapid economic growth, which is not possible without expanding trade,” they said.
The QCCI officials also said their organisation is working to resolve issues faced by industrialists and workers across various sectors, including import-export, agriculture, livestock and transportation.
“We affirm that the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry will play a leading role in improving business ties with countries like Turkiye and Azerbaijan,” they concluded.
Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2025
Former foreign minister and PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been moved from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on Saturday after he suffered heart pain, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Qureshi has been indicted in multiple cases pertaining to the May 9, 2023 riots and has remained behind bars since August 2023.
Speaking to Dawn.com today, Advocate Rana Mudassar, Qureshi’s lawyer, said his client suffered heart pain early in the morning after Fajr prayers. He underwent a medical assessment by prison doctors.
“He was shifted to the PIC by Rescue 1122 after his health failed to improve,” Mudassar said, adding that Qureshi was currently undergoing various tests at the hospital.
The PTI leader’s family had been informed about his condition, the lawyer added.
In July 2024, the PTI vice-president was indicted by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in a case registered by the Shadman police over allegedly attacking and burning the police station.
The same month, he was transferred from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to Kot Lakhpat on a police request. It had stated that frequent transportation of the PTI leader from Rawalpindi to Lahore was not feasible for the authorities as well as for the jailed ex-minister.
In November last year, a Lahore ATC indicted Qureshi and other senior PTI leaders in multiple cases relating to May 9 riots. The former foreign minister has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
To live along the Line of Control (LoC) – the volatile de facto border that separates India and Pakistan – is to exist perpetually on the razor’s edge between fragile peace and open conflict.
The recent escalation after the Pahalgam attack brought India and Pakistan to the brink once again. Shells rained down on both sides of the LoC, turning homes to rubble and lives into statistics. At least 16 people were reportedly killed on the Indian side, while Pakistan claims 40 civilian deaths, though it remains unclear how many were directly caused by the shelling.
“Families on the LoC are subjected to Indian and Pakistani whims and face the brunt of heated tensions,” Anam Zakaria, a Pakistani writer based in Canada, told the BBC.
“Each time firing resumes many are thrust into bunkers, livestock and livelihood is lost, infrastructure – homes, hospitals, schools – is damaged. The vulnerability and volatility experienced has grave repercussions for their everyday lived reality,” Ms Zakaria, author of a book on Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said.
India and Pakistan share a 3,323km (2,064-mile) border, including the 740km-long LoC; and the International Border (IB), spanning roughly 2,400km. The LoC began as the Ceasefire Line in 1949 after the first India-Pakistan war, and was renamed under the 1972 Simla Agreement.
The LoC cutting through Kashmir – claimed in full and administered in parts by both India and Pakistan – remains one of the most militarised borders in the world. Conflict is never far behind and ceasefires are only as durable as the next provocation.
Ceasefire violations here can range from “low-level firing to major land grabbing to surgical strikes“, says Happymon Jacob, a foreign policy expert at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). (A land grab could involve seizing key positions such as hilltops, outposts, or buffer zones by force.)
The LoC, many experts say, is a classic example of a “border drawn in blood, forged through conflict”. It is also a line, as Ms Zakaria says, “carved by India and Pakistan, and militarised and weaponised, without taking Kashmiris into account”.
Such wartime borders aren’t unique to South Asia. Sumantra Bose, professor of international and comparative politics at Krea University in India and author of Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict, says the most well-known is the ‘Green Line’ – the ceasefire line of 1949 – which is the generally recognised boundary between Israel and the West Bank.
Not surprisingly, the tentative calm along the LoC that had endured since the 2021 ceasefire agreement between the two nuclear-armed neighbours crumbled easily after the latest hostilities.
“The current escalation on the LoC and International Border (IB) is significant as it follows a four-year period of relative peace on the border,” Surya Valliappan Krishna of Carnegie India told the BBC.
Violence along the India-Pakistan border is not new – prior to the 2003 ceasefire, India reported 4,134 violations in 2001 and 5,767 in 2002.
The 2003 ceasefire initially held, with negligible violations from 2004 to 2007, but tensions resurfaced in 2008 and escalated sharply by 2013.
Between 2013 and early 2021, the LoC and the IB witnessed sustained high levels of conflict. A renewed ceasefire in February 2021 led to an immediate and sustained drop in violations through to March 2025.
“During periods of intense cross-border firing we’ve seen border populations in the many thousands be displaced for months on end,” says Mr Krishna. Between late September and early December 2016, more than 27,000 people were displaced from border areas due to ceasefire violations and cross-border firing.
It’s looking increasingly hairy and uncertain now.
Tensions flared after the Pahalgam attack, with India suspending the key water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan, known as the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Pakistan responded by threatening to exit the 1972 Simla Agreement, which formalised the LoC – though it hasn’t followed through yet.
“This is significant because the Simla Agreement is the basis of the current LoC, which both sides agreed to not alter unilaterally in spite of their political differences,” says Mr Krishna.
Mr Jacob says for some “curious reason”, ceasefire violations along the LoC have been absent from discussions and debates about escalation of conflict between the two countries.
“It is itself puzzling how the regular use of high-calibre weapons such as 105mm mortars, 130 and 155mm artillery guns and anti-tank guided missiles by two nuclear-capable countries, which has led to civilian and military casualties, has escaped scholarly scrutiny and policy attention,” Mr Jacob writes in his book, Line On Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics.
Mr Jacob identifies two main triggers for the violations: Pakistan often uses cover fire to facilitate militant infiltration into Indian-administered Kashmir, which has witnessed an armed insurgency against Indian rule for over three decades. Pakistan, in turn, accuses India of unprovoked firing on civilian areas.
He argues that ceasefire violations along the India-Pakistan border are less the product of high-level political strategy and more the result of local military dynamics.
The hostilities are often initiated by field commanders – sometimes with, but often without, central approval. He also challenges the notion that the Pakistan Army alone drives the violations, pointing instead to a complex mix of local military imperatives and autonomy granted to border forces on both sides.
Some experts believe It’s time to revisit an idea shelved nearly two decades ago: turning the LoC into a formal, internationally recognised border. Others insist that possibility was never realistic – and still isn’t.
“The idea is completely infeasible, a dead end. For decades, Indian maps have shown the entire territory of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir as part of India,” Sumantra Bose told the BBC.
“For Pakistan, making the LoC part of the International Border would mean settling the Kashmir dispute – which is Pakistan’s equivalent of the Holy Grail – on India’s preferred terms. Every Pakistani government and leader, civilian or military, over the past seven decades has rejected this.”
In his 2003 book, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Prof Bose writes: “A Kashmir settlement necessitates that the LoC be transformed – from an iron curtain of barbed wire, bunkers, trenches and hostile militaries to a linen curtain. Realpolitik dictates that the border will be permanent (albeit probably under a different name), but it must be transcended without being abolished.”
“I stressed, though, that such a transformation of the LoC must be embedded in a broader Kashmir settlement, as one pillar of a multi-pillared settlement,” he told the BBC.
Between 2004 and 2007, turning the LoC into a soft border was central to a fledgling India-Pakistan peace process on Kashmir – a process that ultimately fell apart.
Today, the border has reignited, bringing back the cycle of violence and uncertainty for those who live in its shadow.
“You never know what will happen next. No one wants to sleep facing the Line of Control tonight,” an employee of a hotel in Pakistan-administered Kashmir told BBC Urdu during the recent hostilities.
It was a quiet reminder of how fragile peace is when your window opens to a battlefield.
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