The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group, has taken responsibility for the attack on a train carrying over 400 people in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday and threatened to kill the hostages if their demands were not met, reports Reuters.
The group has “warned of severe consequences” if any attempt is made to rescue the hostages, according to AFP.
The Jaffar Express, with around 450 passengers on board in nine bogies, was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when militants fired upon it.
“Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,” Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told AFP. “Passengers include women and children.”
While the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed that it seized control of the train by derailing it and killed six security personnel, there was no independent confirmation of their claim, reported PTI.
