Militants With Suicide Bombing Vests Block The Rescue Of Pakistan Train Passengers

UNSPLASH/Kasif Usman ILLUSTRATION

Militants wearing suicide vests sit among passengers held hostage in train hijackings in southwest Pakistan.

This condition hampered rescue efforts as deadlines were imminent as the attackers said they would start killing hostages.

Dozens of Blochi separatist militants blew up railroad tracks and threw rockets on Tuesday at Jaffar Express, carrying more than 400 passengers, a security official said.

So far, 190 of them have been rescued, government officials said.

Reported by Reuters on Wednesday, March 12, hundreds of soldiers and teams in helicopters have been deployed to rescue hostages in remote mountainous areas where the train stopped.

The train driver and several others have died, officials said.

However, the Bloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants, with bombs tied to their bodies, sit next to the passengers, young interior minister Talal Chaudhry told Geo television.

"They were wearing suicide vests and ... it made rescue difficult," he said.

"This operation was carried out very carefully so that no one was injured in the hostages, women, and children."

He said about 70 to 80 attackers had hijacked the train.

The group threatened to start executing hostages unless authorities met a 48-hour deadline for the release of political prisoners Bloch, activists, and missing persons who were said to have been kidnapped by the military. The group says half of the time has now passed.

BLA is the largest ethnic armed group of several groups fighting the government in Blochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Militants have in recent months stepped up their activity using new tactics to cause high death and injury toll and target the Pakistani military.

Milich militant groups say they have struggled for decades to get a bigger share of the regional mining and mineral wealth rejected by the central government.