After a passenger train was hijacked by militants in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Tuesday, the country’s security forces have gunned down at least 16 hijackers, while 104 passengers were rescued.
The Jaffar Express, carrying around 400 passengers in nine bogies, was travelling from Quetta to Peshawar when armed men associated with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) intercepted it in a tunnel near the mountainous terrain of Gudalar and Piru Kunri on Tuesday afternoon.
In an ongoing gun battle with the militants the security forces managed to rescue 104 passengers, including women and children, PTI reported quoting sources.
The report added that the clean-up operation will continue until all passengers are rescued from the train.
Some of the hostage passengers have reportedly been taken into the mountains, with the security forces pursuing them in the dark.
According to the sources quoted in the PTI report, the rescued passengers, including 58 men, 31 women, and 15 children, were sent to Mach (a town in the Kachhi district in the Balochistan province of Pakistan) by another train.
