(11 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quetta, Pakistan – 11 March 2025
1. Various exteriors of Quetta railway station where hijacked train departed from
2. Railway official pasting placard reading (English) “Information desk for Jaffar Express"
3. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Abdul Rauf, whose father is on the train:
“My father is a heart patient. If he doesn’t get medicine he will get sick. This morning while sending him off, I gave him some pills so that if he feels unwell he can take them immediately. I also told him ‘don’t worry I will be in touch with you.’ Now I don’t know how he is."
4. Pakistani army helicopter in sky
5. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Muhammad Shahid, relative of train passengers:
“My relatives are travelling in the train. One of my cousins dropped them off this morning and now we have no contact with them. Now the government of Balochistan needs to establish an emergency centre through which people can contact their loved ones.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
Sibi, Pakistan – 11 March 2025
6. Various of Sibi railway station with trains stopped due to disruption from attack
7. Relief train parked waiting for clearance
STORYLINE:
Pakistani insurgents attacked a passenger train in a tunnel and claimed to take over 100 hostages on Tuesday, as authorities struggled to reach the remote area.
The fate of the estimated 500 people aboard was not immediately clear.
Officials said the attackers blew up the railroad track in restive southwestern Balochistan province and exchanged fire with security guards aboard the train.
The train was traveling from the provincial capital of Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar when it came under attack in Bolan district.
Ambulances were dispatched but access was not easy due to the rugged, mountainous terrain.
Outside Quetta railway station, Abdul Rauf, whose father is on the train, wept as he told the Associated Press about the situation.
"My father is a heart patient. If he doesn’t get medicine he will get sick," he said.
"I also told him ‘don’t worry I will be in touch with you.’ Now I don’t know how he is."
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army, which has waged a yearslong insurgency, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it took over 100 hostages including security forces who were on board.
Officials at Pakistan Railways said the Jafar Express train was carrying an estimated 500 passengers, including women and children.
Three security officials said the BLA, which Pakistan and the United States have designated a terrorist organization, ambushed the train inside a tunnel and used women and children as human shields.
They said troops have launched an operation to rescue the hostages.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Trains in Balochistan typically have security personnel on board.
Separatists have previously carried out deadly attacks on trains in the region.
In November, a separatist group carried out a suicide bombing at a train station in Quetta that killed 26 people.
The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province.
It is a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
AP video by Khalil Ahmed
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