JAKARTA - The militant group said it killed 50 passengers from railroad hijackings in southwest Pakistan as security forces tried to save the hostages.
Reuters was unable to verify the militant statement. The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for response to the militant statement.
Dozens of Bloch separatist militants on Tuesday blew up railroad tracks and threw rockets at Jaffar Express, carrying more than 400 passengers, a security official said.
Government officials say 190 of them have been rescued so far.
Para militan mengatakan semua penumpang yang ditahan adalah pejabat keamanan dan semua warga sipil telah dibebaskan.
"Today, enemy forces are trying to carry out armed attacks using heavy artillery and advanced weaponry, which caused major clashes," the Bloch Liberation Army (BLA) said in a statement.
"As a direct reply to Pakistan's persistent aggression. The BLA has executed 50 additional enemy personnel who have been involved in the past hour," he continued.
Hundreds of soldiers and teams in helicopters have been deployed in an effort to rescue hostages in the remote mountainous area where the train stopped. The train driver and several others have died, officials said, before the militants' last statement.
Hours before BLA announced about 50 hostages, security officials said all the militants at the scene had been killed and the operation had entered "final stages".
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Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry told Geo television militants were wearing suicide vests as they sat among the passengers being held hostage, making it difficult for rescue efforts. He said 70-80 attackers had hijacked the train.
BLA is the largest ethnic armed group to fight the government in Blochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
In recent months, militants have stepped up their activities by using new tactics to cause heavy casualties and injuries as well as targeting the Pakistani military.
The Bloch militant group said it had struggled to get a bigger share of the regional wealth in the form of mines and minerals rejected by the central government.
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