Insurgents attack a train carrying hundreds of people and take hostages

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

Pakistani insurgents attacked a passenger train carrying several hundred people as it passed through a tunnel yesterday [Macau time] and claimed to have taken more than 100 hostages, though officials later said at least 104 were rescued. The fate of the other passengers wasn’t immediately known.

Security officials said the attackers blew up the railroad track in southwestern Balochistan province, and exchanged fire with security guards aboard the train while using women and children as human shields.

Officials said some passengers, including women and children, were wounded in the attack.

The train was traveling from the provincial capital, Quetta, to the northern city of Peshawar when it came under attack in Bolan district, government spokesman Shahid Rind said, calling it “an act of terrorism.” Rind said access to the area wasn’t easy because of the rugged, mountainous terrain.

The separatist Baloch Liberation Army known as the BLA, which has waged a yearslong insurgency, claimed responsibility and said the hostages included members of the security forces who had been on board.

Pakistani officials did not confirm that security forces were captured. Trains in Balochistan typically have security personnel on board.

In a statement, BLA spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said the group was ready to free passengers if the government agrees to release the group’s jailed militants. Government officials weren’t immediately available to discuss the offer, but authorities have rejected such offers in the past. Pakistan and the United States have designated the BLA as a terrorist organization.

Officials at Pakistan Railways said the Jafar Express train was carrying an estimated 500 passengers.

Three security officials told The Associated Press that troops rescued at least 104 passengers, including 31 women and 15 children, and 16 attackers had been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in separate statements denounced the attack.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and called for the immediate release of the hostages, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. It’s a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.

Separatists have previously carried out deadly attacks on trains there. In November, a separatist group carried out a suicide bombing at a train station in Quetta that killed 26 people.

Pakistani authorities and analysts estimate that the BLA has around 3,000 fighters. BLA regularly targets Pakistani security forces, but has also attacked civilians as well as Chinese nationals working on multibillion-dollar projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC.

BLA has enhanced its operational capability, and that “means that BLA has access to funding and weapons,” according to Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. MDT/AP