How the kidnapping of the Pakistan train was developed

Mehboob Hussain was traveling at home on Tuesday when the tracks exploded under the front front.

In the depths of the Pakistan Central Bolshend pass, a desert pocket so remote that there is no mobile internet coverage, the nine -training Jaffar Express is stopped. Then the bullets began to fly.

“He was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Hussain told BBC Urdu.

He, along with another 440, had been traveling from Quetta to Peshawar through the heart of the disturbing province of Baluchistan when a group of armed militants hit: they bombarded the tracks, fired on the train and then assaulted the carriages.

The Baluchistan Liberation Army (BL) quickly attributed the responsibility of the siege, and threatened to kill many of those on board if the Pakistani authorities did not free Baloch’s political prisoners within 48 hours.

The group, which many countries have designated a terrorist organization, has fought an insurgency of decades to obtain the independence of Baluchistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting The rich mineral resources of the province also neglect it.

Bla militants have a long history of attacked military camps, railroad stations and trains in the region.

But this was the first time they had kidnapped one.

The siege lasted more than 30 hours. According to the authorities, 300 passengers have been released, and 33 militants Bla, 21 civil hostages and four members of the military personnel were killed. But contradictory figures suggest that many passengers are still without account.

Information related to the attack and posterior rescue operation has been closely controlled at all times.

But the BBC could talk to Multiple eye witnesses described the “scenes of the end of the world” aboard the train as the attack was developed.

As Ishaq Noor told BBC Urdu about those first moments: “We endure breathing throughout the dismissal, without knowing what would happen next.”

A railway police officer who was on board the train told the BBC URUCU that, unlike the initial reports of the Pakistani authorities, the train “was not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was beaten.

The Bla also released an alleged video of the moment when the train was beaten by the explosion. It shows an open track section that runs along the base of a large rocky slope.

At the top of that slope, according to the video, there is a cluster of Bla fighters.

The officer described the BBC how initially “fought along with other police officers” to try to stop militants until “the ammunition was exhausted.”

“They (the Bla) were moving in front of us in the mountain and were much more numerous than us, in hundreds,” recalled the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He pointed out that he was accompanied by four railway police and two members of the Pakistan paramilitary border body (FC).

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

“I told my partner to give me the G-3 rifle because it is a better weapon,” said the officer. “When I got the rifle and rounds, we also started to shoot. I used to shoot a shot at the same time so that they could not approach us and the train … (but) in an hour and a half, our rounds were over … we were helpless.”

When the shots of those who aboard the Jaffar Express ceased, the militants fell from the surrounding mountains and began to take out the passengers from the train, said the officer.

“They began to verify the cards and tell the people to go in this way, in this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages separated into groups next to the train, according to their ethnicity.

The militants spoke in the Balochi language, he added, and declared: “We have made demands to the Government and if they are not met, we will not save anyone; we will set the vehicle on fire.”

The officer said that the militants were receiving orders: “They received orders to kill, and would collect people from the group and killed them. They killed many people, both the army staff and the civilians.”

However, some passengers were allowed to leave unharmed, including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Baluchistan, according to Mr. Noor.

Among those launched was Noor Muhammad. He said that when the initial shots of the shots stopped after an hour, the armed men forced the train door and entered, saying “to leave or shoot.”

Mr. Muhammad said he was escorted the train, and when he told the militants that his wife was still on the back of the car, they also took it out. Then “they told us to be directly and let’s not look back.”

The couple walked through the desert, he said, and with “great difficulty” he arrived at the Panir train station around 7 pm, where they rested.

His wife recalled at the moment when Pakistan’s army came to meet them.

“They told me: ‘Madam, enters us, we will take you home safely,” he said. The soldiers took the couple to the city of Machh, she added, “and then we arrived in Quetta to our children, who were waiting for us.”

Some passengers who managed to get out of the train on Tuesday night said they walked for almost four hours to reach the next railway station. They included Muhammad Ashraf, who had been traveling on the train to Lahore to visit his family.

“We arrived at the station with great difficulty,” Urdu told BBC, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”

As the night descended on the Jaffar Express, dozens of militants Bla began to start, according to the police officer who did not want to appoint.

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

Around 10 pm, he recalled, violence exploded again.

“Some people tried to flee, they (the bla) saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” said the official.

Mehboob similarly remembered the shots throughout the night, and said that at one time, 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 Bla. He said that his cousin was pleading with the militants who did not kill him, since he had young daughters, but “his life was not saved.”

The BBC on Wednesday saw dozens of wooden coffins loaded at the Quetta railway station. A railroad official said they were empty and that they were being transported to collect casualties.

It was during the time of Wednesday morning prayer that FC rescuers began shooting at the Bla militants, said Allahditta.

In the middle of the sudden chaos, he and others released.

“When the FC opened fire at the time of the so -called Fajr to prayer, we escaped the militants,” said Allahdita.

The police officer similarly remembered the moment in which the FC moved, briefly diverting the approach of militants Bla away from the hostages.

“When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people went to this address,” said the official. “I told my partner: ‘Let’s try to flee.'”

The militants fired the escapes when they fled, and the official said that his partner was hit from behind.

“He told me to let him go. I said no, I will take you on my shoulder. So another person also joined the hands and we went down the hills and we left the shooting field.”

Mr. Mehboob, Mr. Allahdita, the police officer and his partner managed to escape from the Jaffar Express Vivo when the FC attacked the militants.

Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters had surrounded the train stranded since Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed the hostages and clear the site, according to a military spokesman.

The authorities said there were 440 passengers on the train, and 300 of them have been released. But it is not yet clear what happened to the remaining 140. Reuters and AFP cited an unidentified security official who said that some milliants had gone, carrying an unknown number of passengers with them.

The army says that he is still working to find passengers who escaped and fled to the surrounding area, and insists that any other involved in kidnapping would be taken before justice.

Noor, who now distributes alms and charity in his hometown along with his wife, is grateful to have escaped the situation with his life.

“Thank God,” said Noor. “He saved us.”