(12 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quetta, Pakistan – 12 March 2025
1. Various exteriors of Quetta railway station with frontier constabulary soldiers, police and relatives standing at main entrance
2. Close of information counter
3. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Shams Ullah Khan, relative of hostages:
"One of my relatives is an employee at the National Bank and the other was a laborer. They were on vacation and were going back home. But they too were taken hostage on the train. So far, I don’t have any information about them."
4. Various of family of a hostage in front of railway station
5. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Hamad Khan, brother of a passenger taken hostage from train:
"I have been here many times since last night, but I have not received any information about my brother who was also on the hijacked train. I don’t know who to ask about his condition or where he is."
6. Relative waiting in front of station
7. Various of relatives at information counter
8. Policeman talking to relative of passenger
STORYLINE:
Relatives of passengers taken hostage on a train hijacked by insurgents in Pakistan waited anxiously at a train station in the western city of Quetta on Wednesday for any news about their loved ones.
"One of my relatives is an employee at the National Bank and the other was a laborer. They were on vacation and were going back home. But they too were taken hostage on the train," said Shams Ullah khan, one of the relatives waiting at the station.
Hamad Khan, another relative whose brother was taken hostage, said "I don’t know who to ask about his condition or where he is."
Pakistani officials say security forces have exchanged gunfire with hundreds of separatist militants, seeking to free about 300 hostages aboard the train in the country’s rugged southwest.
Security forces were being cautious on Wednesday, the second day of the standoff as officials said the hostages were surrounded by militants wearing vests loaded with explosives.
At least 27 militants have been killed and security forces rescued more than 150 of the 450 people who were on the train when it was hijacked on Tuesday as it entered a tunnel in Bolan, a district in restive Balochistan province.
Authorities said the rescued so far include women and children.
An undisclosed number of security personnel have been killed, according to three security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Officials say the train was partially inside a tunnel when the militants blew up the tracks, forcing the engine and nine coaches to stop.
The driver was wounded and guards aboard the train were attacked, although the officials gave no details on how many there were or their fate.
AP video shot by Kifayat Hussain
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