(Adnkronos) – Almost 24 hours after the start of the hostage-taking, at least 155 passengers of the train attacked yesterday in Pakistan by a group of separatists from Baluchistan have been freed out of a total of 450 on board the convoy that was stormed. Twenty-seven attackers were killed, according to security forces. An initial, entirely provisional, toll provided yesterday spoke of a police officer, a soldier and the train driver killed.
It all started yesterday around 1pm local time: the Jaffar Express, which left from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, on the border between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, and which was supposed to reach Peshawar, the capital of the neighboring province further north, was surprised at the entrance to a tunnel near the city of Sibi, where the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), the main separatist group in this province, rich in hydrocarbons and minerals but the poorest in Pakistan, had planted a bomb which exploded damaging the tracks, causing panic among the passengers and starting the attack.
