Pakistan PM visits Quetta as militants behind train hijack say standoff still on

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Balochistan province on Thursday, as dozens of people rescued from a train hijacked by separatist militants arrived in Quetta after security forces killed33 attackers to end a day-long standoff.

Sharif's visit came even as insurgent group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, refuted the military's claim that the standoff had ended, saying that the "battle" was continuing and it still had hostages.

Militants blew up the rail tracks and opened fire on the Jaffar Express as it made its way to Peshawar in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Quetta, the capital of mineral-rich Balochistan, on Tuesday.

The militants are fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

A total of 21 hostages and four security troops were killed in the standoff, according to the military, but the BLA - the largest of Balochistan's armed ethnic groups battling the government - said 50 hostages were executed.

Sharif is on a day-long visit to Quetta, during which he will be briefed on the security situation in the region, the government said.

He condemned the attack in a post on X on Wednesday, adding, "Such cowardly acts will not shake Pakistan’s resolve for peace."

Authorities said 25 bodies had been brought to a local railway station from where they would be taken to Quetta in ambulances.

BLA said that the people Pakistan "claimed" to have rescued were actually released by the group itself.

"Now that the state has abandoned its hostages to die it will also bear responsibility for their deaths," the group's spokesperson, Jeeyand Baloch, said in a statement on Thursday.

The BLA had threatened to start killing hostages if authorities missed a 48-hour deadline to release Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing people it said had been abducted by the military.

SURVIVED ON WATER, CROUCHED ON FLOOR FOR HOURS, SAY HOSTAGES

Men armed with rocket launchers, guns, and other weapons stormed the train on Tuesday and began shooting people, said Arslan Yousaf, one of several rescued hostages who arrived in Quetta on Thursday, escorted by security forces.

The militants grouped the passengers on the basis of their region of origin, Yousaf added.

"Sometimes, they took soldiers ... and executed them," he said, referring to passengers from the Pakistan Army and other security forces who were travelling on leave.

"Other times, they targeted specific individuals. If they had a grudge against someone, they shot him on the spot."

The hostages survived only on water during the time they were held, said Muhammad Tanveer, another passenger.

Reuters video images showed the rescued hostages receiving first-aid at the Quetta railway-station.

"The terrorists breached the train by smashing windows, but they mistakenly believed we were dead," said train driver Amjad, who dived to the engine floor for cover when the militants opened fire, and lay there for about 27 hours to survive.