Sawt Falasteen - Dozens of hostages freed, hundreds still held in Pakistan train seige

Security sources said that heavy gunfire was ongoing between security forces and the militants.

Gunmen forced the train to a halt in a remote, mountainous area of Balochistan province on Tuesday afternoon, in an assault that was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group behind rising violence in the province which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

"Security forces have successfully freed 80 hostages, including 43 men, 26 women, and 11 children, from the terrorists," security sources told AFP, adding that 13 militants had been killed.

"Efforts are ongoing to ensure the safe release of the remaining passengers. The terrorists have been surrounded, and the operation will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized."

Wounded passengers have been taken to nearby hospitals.

Earlier in the day, Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told AFP that "over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen."

In a statement, the BLA said gunmen bombed the railway track before storming aboard the train.

"The militants swiftly took control of the train and have taken all passengers hostage," said the statement released to media.

The group "warned of severe consequences" if an attempt is made to rescue the hostages.

The incident happened around 1:00 pm (0800 GMT) in rural Sibi district, near to a city station where the train had been due to stop.

The train had left Quetta for Peshawar, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -- a more than 30-hour journey -- at around 9:00 am.

A senior police official from the area bordering Sibi, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that "the train remains stuck just before a tunnel surrounded by mountains".

An emergency has been imposed at hospitals in Sibi, according to the government official.

- Decades-long insurgency -

The area is a mountainous region making it easier for militants to have hideouts and plan attacks.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan, which militant groups claim is being exploited by outsiders, with wealth from its natural resources syphoned off with little benefit to the local population.

But violence has soared in the western border regions with Afghanistan, from north to south, since the Taliban took back power in 2021.

Pakistan accuses the Taliban government in Kabul of offering safe haven to militants to plan attacks. The Taliban government denies the charge.

The BLA have launched larger scale attacks in recent months, including holding a motorway overnight and identifying travellers from outside the province and shooting them dead.

BLA militants also killed seven Punjabi travellers in February after they were ordered off a bus.

In November, the BLA claimed responsibility for a bombing at Quetta's main railway station that killed 26 people, including 14 soldiers.

Last year was the deadliest year in almost a decade, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks in Pakistan, mostly in the border regions, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST