Thu Mar 13 13:12:49 UTC 2025: ## Pakistan Rescues Over 300 Passengers After Insurgent Train Attack

**QUETTA, Pakistan (March 13, 2025) –** Pakistani security forces rescued over 300 passengers after a deadly insurgent attack on a passenger train in Balochistan province. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an outlawed group, claimed responsibility for the attack, which began Tuesday and ended Wednesday with the deaths of all 33 insurgents. Twenty-one civilians and four troops were killed in the assault.

The Jafer Express train, traveling from Quetta to Peshawar, was derailed when insurgents blew up the railway track, trapping nine carriages and the engine in a tunnel. The BLA, which frequently targets Pakistani security forces, used the passengers as human shields, opening fire and killing or wounding many before taking hostages. Survivors reported the assailants firing into the train carriages.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Balochistan Thursday to meet survivors and the commandos involved in the rescue operation. He was received amid tight security in Quetta. The government is arranging transportation of victims’ bodies and providing medical care to the wounded.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Shafqat Ali Khan, stated that the BLA attackers were in contact with handlers in Afghanistan. The Pakistani military also confirmed intelligence indicating the attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan, prompting them to urge the Afghan Taliban government to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorist activities. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the accusations while expressing sorrow over the loss of innocent lives.

Separately, Pakistani security forces killed 10 militants suspected of being members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) near a military facility in South Waziristan. The TTP, an ally of the Afghan Taliban, has seen increased activity since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan province, where the train attack took place, has seen ongoing conflict fueled by claims of discrimination and exploitation of the ethnic Baloch minority by the central government.

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