Around 155 passengers taken hostage in yesterday’s attack on a train near Balochistan’s Bolan district have been rescued so far as security forces continued their operation on Wednesday, according to state media, Dawn reported.
An unprecedented hostage situation unfolded on Tuesday after terrorists attacked the Jaffar Express in a rugged part of Balochistan, taking more than 400 passengers hostage, including a sizeable number of security personnel.
Security forces claimed to have rescued around 155 passengers so far — including women and children from the attackers, according to state-run Radio Pakistan.
Citing security sources, Radio Pakistan reported that 27 terrorists had been killed by security forces so far.
“The terrorists have positioned suicide bombers very close to some innocent hostages. The suicide bombers are wearing explosive vests,” the report quoted security sources as saying.
The security forces were “proceeding with extreme caution due to the presence of suicide bombers among the hostages”, Radio Pakistan stated.
Although hampered by the remoteness of the area, security forces said they had launched a massive operation in the Dhadar area of Bolan Pass to rescue the hostages.
There was no confirmation of the total number of casualties, but officials said that at least 10 people — including the driver of the locomotive and eight security personnel — had lost their lives as the forces engaged in a gun battle.
It was not immediately clear whether these people had been freed as the result of kinetic military action, or were among those allegedly freed by the armed assailants.
bd-pratidin/GR
