AFP
More than 400 people were on the train when they were attacked
Mehboob Hussain went up the train at home on Tuesday when the tracks under the car before exploded.
In the depths of the Bolan pass in the center of Pakistan, a wild pocket so far away that there is no internet coverage or mobile network, the field of nine Jaffar Express coaches. Then the bullets started to fly.
“I was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Hussain told the BBC Urdu.
He, with around 440 others, had traveled from Quetta to Peshawar through the heart of the province made of Balutchistan when a group of armed activists struck – they bombed the traces, drawn on the train and then stormed the cars.
The Balutchistan Liberation Army (Bla) quickly claimed the responsibility of the siege and threatened to kill many of those on board if the Pakistani authorities did not release Balutch’s political prisoners within 48 hours.
The group, which many countries have appointed a terrorist organization, has led a several decades to gain the independence of Balutchistan, accusing Islamabad of having exploited the rich mineral resources of the province while neglecting it.
BL activists have a long history of attack on military camps, stations and trains in the region.
But it was the first time that they diverted one.
The seat lasted more than 30 hours. According to the authorities, 300 passengers have now been released and 33 militants BLA, 21 civil hostages and four soldiers were killed. But the contradictory figures suggest that many passengers remain unrecovered.
Information relating to the attack and subsequent rescue operation has been closely controlled throughout.
But the BBC was able to speak to several eyewitnesses who described the “Doomsday scenes” aboard the train as the attack took place.
As Ishaq Noor said to the BBC Ourdou of these first moments: “We retained our breath throughout the shooting, not knowing what would happen next.”
A shooting
A railway police officer who was aboard the train told the BBC URDU that, contrary to the first reports of the Pakistani authorities, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was struck.
The Bla also published an alleged video from the moment when the train was struck by the explosion. It shows an open track section that runs along the base of a large rocky slope.
At the top of this slope, depending on the video, there is a group of BLA fighters.
The officer described at the BBC how he initially “fought with other police officers” to try to retain activists until “ammunition exhausted”.
“They (the Bla) moved before us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” said the officer, who spoke under the cover of anonymity. He noted that he was accompanied by four rail police officers and two members of Pakistan’s Paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).
According to Pakistani officials.
Reuters / Hakkal Media
The Bla has released images of what she says is the moment when her fighters attacked the train
“I told my companion to give me the G-3 rifle because it’s a better weapon,” said the officer. “When I obtained the rifle and the rounds, we also started to retaliate. I used to shoot a blow at one point so that they cannot approach us and the train … (but) in an hour and a half, our rounds were finished … We were helpless.”
When the shots of those aboard the Jaffar Express stopped, the activists went down from the surrounding mountains and began to remove the passengers from the train, said the officer.
“They started checking the cards and telling people to go that way,” he said, explaining that hostages were separated into groups alongside the train, according to their ethnicity.
The activists spoke in the Balochi language, he added, and said: “We have made requests to the government and if they are not met, we will not spare anyone; we will set fire to the vehicle”.
The officer said that the activists received orders: “They would be ordered to kill, and they would pick up people from the group and kill them. They killed many people – army and civilian staff.”
The first version
However, some passengers were authorized to leave unscathed – including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Balutchistan, according to Mr. Noor.
Among the published people were Noor Muhammad. He said that when the initial shots of gunshot stopped after an hour, the armed men forced to open the door to the train and entered, saying “go out or we will shoot you”.
Mr. Muhammad said he had been escorted from the train, and when he told the activists that his wife was still in the back of the car, they also took him out. Then they “told us to go straight and not look back”.
The couple crossed the desert, he said, and with “a great difficulty” reached the Panir station around 7 pm, where they rested.
His wife recalled when the Pakistani army arrived to meet them.
“They said to me:” Madam, enter with us, back to you safely “,” she said. The soldiers took the couple to the city of Machh, she added: “Then we reached our children, who were waiting for us”.
Some passengers who managed to leave the train late Tuesday evening said they had walked for almost four hours to reach the next station. They understood Muhammad Ashraf, who rose the train to Lahore to visit his family.
“We reached the station with great difficulty,” he told the BBC Ourdou, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”
Plans in the night
While the night went down the Jaffar Express, dozens of MLA activists began to leave, according to the police officer who did not want to appoint.
“Many of them have gotten away and 70, 80 people left while 20, 25 stayed,” he said.
Around 10 p.m., he recalls, violence broke again.
“Some people tried to run away, they (the Bla) saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell on the ground,” said the official.
Mr. Mehboob also recalled gunshots throughout the night – and said that at some point, a person close to him, who had five daughters, had been shot.
“When someone is killed before your eyes, you don’t know what to do,” he said.
Another passenger, Allahditta, said that his cousin had been killed before him by the blah. He said his cousin begged activists not to kill him because he had young girls but “his life was not spared”.
Wednesday, the BBC saw dozens of wooden coffins loaded at Quetta station. A rail manager said they were empty and were transported to perceive victims.
Morning escape
It was at the time of morning prayer on Wednesday that FC rescuers began to shoot the militants of the BLA, said Allahditta.
In the middle of sudden chaos, he and others have freed themselves.
“When the FC opened fire at the time of the appeal to the Fajr prayer, we escaped activists,” said Allahdita.
The police official also recalled the moment when the FC moved, briefly diverting the attention of black activists far from the hostages.
“When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to this management,” said the manager. “I told my companion,” Let’s try to run away. “”
Activists shot the escapees while they were fled and the manager said that his companion had been hit from behind.
“He told me to let go. I said no, I will wear you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined and we went down to the hills and out of the shooting field.”
Mr. Mehboob, Mr. Allahdita, the police officer and his companion all managed to escape the Jaffar Express living while the FC attacked the activists.
Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters had surrounded the stranded train since Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed hostage takers and cleaned the site, according to a military spokesperson.
The authorities said that there were 440 passengers on the train – and 300 of them had been released. But we still don’t know what happened to the remaining 140. Reuters and AFP cited an anonymous security official who said that certain circles had left, taking an unknown number of passengers with them.
The army says that it always endeavors to find passengers who escaped and fled in the surroundings, and insists that other people involved in the diversion would be brought to justice.
Mr. Noor, who now distributes alms and charity in his hometown with his wife, is simply grateful to have escaped the situation with his life.
“Thank goodness,” said Noor. “He saved us.”
