Eastern excess: what the terrorists who hijacked the train in Pakistan demand

Moscow does not have information about whether Russian citizens are among those captured in Pakistan, the Russian embassy in Islamabad told Izvestia. On March 11, a train traveling from Quetta to Peshawar was stopped in a mountainous area. Gunfire was opened on the train, and more than 30 people were captured by the militants. The Balochistan Liberation Army extremist group, which seeks to achieve provincial independence, claimed responsibility for the incident. The organization has committed terrorist attacks in the country before. The reason for the growing crime rate in Pakistan is in the Izvestia article.

Hostage-taking on a train

On the morning of March 11, at 9 a.m. local time, a train with 425 passengers left Quetta, Pakistan, bound for Peshawar. The journey from one point to another was supposed to take just over 30 hours, but at 13:00 traffic stopped after a strong explosion occurred under the train locomotive. Then fire was opened on the train.

The militants of the Balochistan Liberation Army extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack, and they also distributed a video of the train bombing on social networks. As a result of the shooting, the driver and several passengers were seriously injured.

According to Reuters, the terrorists took 35 passengers hostage, 350 people are now safe. At the same time, the group claims to have 214 hostages in captivity. By the middle of the day, it became known that the armed group had released the women and children.

According to TASS with reference to Geo TV, the militants freed at least 80 hostages. There are 11 children and 26 women among them. According to unconfirmed information from official sources, the terrorists are holding only military personnel hostage.

In addition, the extremists claimed that they shot down a drone and eliminated 20 Pakistani soldiers who arrived at the train stop in a mountainous area, and threatened to kill the hostages if the troops launched an operation against them. They demand that the Pakistani authorities release the detained activists and political prisoners from the group within 48 hours. Otherwise, the train will be destroyed and the hostages will be killed, the militants threaten.

As of 21:30 Moscow time, it was not clear whether there were Russians among the captured.

"The embassy has no information about Russian citizens among the hostages," the Russian Embassy in Islamabad told Izvestia.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and said the government would not make any concessions in a dialogue with "animals who shoot at innocent passengers." According to Reuters, security forces launched a large-scale operation against the militants, which involved helicopters and special forces.

It is noteworthy that on March 7, the Balochistan Counter-Terrorism Department issued a warning that the Liberation Army was preparing an attack. The Agency called on all concerned authorities to take emergency precautions and safety measures.

The reasons for the terrorist attack in Pakistan

The year 2024 was the most violent in the last ten years in Pakistan. More than 1.6 thousand people were killed in terrorist attacks last year. The Balochistan Liberation Army is behind many of these deaths.

Last November, it claimed responsibility for an explosion at Quetta's main railway station that killed 26 people, including 14 soldiers. In February 2025, the militants also killed seven Punjabi travelers whom they ordered to be dropped off the bus.

The March 11 incident is not the first and not the last terrorist attack, which is backed by the Balochistan Liberation Army, Vladimir Sotnikov, a leading researcher at the Center for Central Asian Studies of the ISSA RAS, explained to Izvestia. According to the expert, their main goal is to draw attention to their attempts to withdraw the region from Pakistan.

— The group is waging a war for Balochistan's independence from Pakistan with the central government and the armed forces. They have a lot of followers among the civilian population, so it is difficult for the Pakistani military to fight terrorism. But there is neither a Western hand nor a Chinese one here — they all suffer from terrorism themselves, this is a purely domestic product of Balochistan. This region is rich in natural resources, which the group sells and buys weapons from third countries for this money," Vladimir Sotnikov comments.

Balochistan is the largest, but at the same time the poorest province of Pakistan, despite the abundance of natural resources. Locals blame the central government for this, which, in their opinion, benefits from the sale of mineral resources instead of using the proceeds to develop the region.

The crisis between the Balochis and the central government has been going on throughout Pakistan's existence, but it has flared up with renewed vigor in recent years after the local deepwater port of Gwadar was leased to China. After that, the militants repeatedly attacked government employees, the military and enterprises associated with the PRC, demanding a share of the resources being developed there.

The crimes of the Balochistan Liberation Army are usually directed at Punjabis (Pakistan's largest ethnic group), as they dominate the army, or at Chinese citizens.

One of the reasons for the increased frequency of attacks is the frustration felt by members of the groups due to the successful operations of the authorities against militant strongholds, Rashid Wali Janjua, director of research at the Islamabad Institute for Political Studies (IPRI), explained to Izvestia.

— The army and special services are fighting terrorist groups very effectively, inflicting heavy losses on them. Now a more effective counterterrorism strategy is expected, in which the battle will be fought on the bases of the terrorists themselves," the expert says.

In recent years, the group has changed its attack tactics to include suicide attacks, as well as involving women in the process. The attack on Chinese citizens near the University of Karachi was significant. The attack was carried out by a former schoolteacher who was 30 years old.