Pakistani security forces strategically deployed expert snipers to take out Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) suicide bombers who were stationed in the middle of the Jaffar Express passengers, senior officials said.
33 BLA fighters were present on the premises of the hijacked train and all of them have been "sent to hell," Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told the press on Wednesday. Jaffar Express and the vicinity is being checked by bomb disposal units as per the standard operating procedures, he added.
Pakistan Army says the operation is over, all BLA fighters killed. Hard to verify.
— Siddharth's Echelon (@SiddharthKG7) March 12, 2025
But, imagine the stupidity that these many soldiers were travelling in the train. Many officers, wives, soldiers.
BLA issued the list of soldiers in train. Total insult of state forces.
Maybe… pic.twitter.com/r4ZzgJ7ucJ
The marksmen successfully identified and eliminated the suicide bombers sitting amidst the hostages, allowing them to flee. Later, the snipers were tasked to spot and neutralise explosive-vest weaing insurgents inside each coach of the halted train. The skilful troopers managed to do this as well before their colleagues moved in on foot to clear out each coach of the train.
According to Pakistani media reports, the BLA fighters had separated the passengers into three groups in the open and had asked suicide bombers to stay within these groups at all times to prevent them from running away. Once the snipers took out these men, the hostages were at liberty to take cover. As they saw bullets hitting their captivators, they scrammed and the security officials are now gathering all of them to be accompanied to safety.
Members of the Pakistan Army, Air Force, Frontier Corps and SSG personnel were part of the operation. A total of 21 hostages were killed by the BLA fighters but no life was lost in the final phase of the rescue mission, Pakistan authorities said. Military casualties included four Frontier Corps personnel. While one died during Tuesday's operations, the other three were positioned at a railway picket when gunned down by the separatists, Chaudhry reportedly said.
Dozens of separatist Baloch militants on Tuesday blew up the railway track and hurled rockets at the Jaffar Express, carrying more than 400 passengers. The BLA had threatened to start executing hostages unless authorities met its 48-hour deadline for the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing people it says were abducted by the military.
