QUETTA: Hostages freed after a day-long ordeal following the militant attack on the Jaffar Express in Balochistan described spending hours crouched on the floor before their release, as they recounted the tales of courage, forbearance, and daring escape.
Militants blew up the rail tracks and opened fire on the passenger train as it made its way to Peshawar from Quetta on Tuesday. Outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. Twenty-one hostages and four security men were martyred. Dozens of people rescued from the train arrived on Thursday in Quetta, hours after security forces killed all 33 attackers to end a day-long standoff. The survivors received food and medical aid in Quetta.
Men armed with rocket launchers, guns, and other weapons stormed the train and began shooting people, said Arslan Yousaf, one of several rescued hostages who arrived in Quetta on Thursday, escorted by security forces. The militants grouped the passengers on the basis of their region of origin, Yousaf added.
The hostages survived only on water during the time they were held, said Muhammad Tanveer, another passenger.
“The terrorists breached the train by smashing windows, but they mistakenly believed we were dead,” said train driver Amjad, who dived to the engine floor for cover when the militants opened fire and crouched there for about 27 hours to survive.
Mehboob Ahmed, 31, who was shot several times, said the hostages made two attempts to escape from the train and while some succeeded, many were killed as the armed men opened fire. “We had nearly lost hope for survival,” he said.
Passengers who escaped from the siege said after walking for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety that they saw people being shot dead by militants.
Muhammad Naveed, who managed to escape, said that the militants asked them to come out of the train one by one. “They asked us to come outside, saying we will not be harmed. When around 185 people came outside, they chose people and shot them down.”
Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian labourer, told AFP on Wednesday he and his family walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach a train that could take them to a makeshift hospital on a railway platform. “Our women pleaded with them and they let us go,” he said. “They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us.”
News Desk adds: A railway police officer who was on board the train told BBC Urdu that, contrary to initial reports, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was hit. The officer described to the BBC how he initially “fought together with other police officers” to try and hold off the militants until “the ammunition ran out”.
“They [the BLA] were moving in front of us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled.
When the gunfire from those on board the Jaffar Express ceased, the militants came down from the surrounding mountains and started taking passengers off the train, the officer said. “They started checking cards and telling people to go this way, this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages were separated into groups alongside the train.
He said the militants declared, “We have made demands to the government and if they are not met, we will not spare anyone; we will set the vehicle on fire”. The officer claimed the militants were receiving orders: “They would get orders to kill, and they would pick up people from the group and kill them...”
Some passengers who managed to leave the train late on Tuesday evening said they walked for nearly four hours to reach the next railway station. They included Muhammad Ashraf, who had been riding the train to Lahore to visit his family. “We reached the station with great difficulty,” he told BBC Urdu, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”
As night descended over the Jaffar Express, scores of BLA militants began to depart, according to the police official who did not wish to be named. “Many of them hugged each other and 70, 80 people left while 20, 25 stayed behind,” he said. At about 10pm, he recalled, violence erupted again. “Some people tried to run away, they [the BLA] saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” the official said.
Mr Mehboob similarly recalled gunfire throughout the night – and said at one point, a person close to him, who had five daughters, was shot. “When someone is killed in front of your eyes, you don’t know what to do,” he said.
Another passenger, Allahditta, said his cousin was killed in front of him by the BLA. He said his cousin was pleading to the militants to not kill him as he had young daughters but “his life was not spared”.
It was during the time of morning prayer on Wednesday that rescuers from the FC started firing on the BLA militants, Mr Allahditta said. Amid the sudden chaos, he and others broke free. “When the FC opened fire at the time of the Fajr call to prayer, we escaped from the militants,” Mr Allahdita said.
The police official similarly recalled the moment when the FC moved in, briefly diverting the BLA militants’ focus away from the hostages. “When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to this direction,” the official said. “I told my companion, ‘Let’s try to run away.’“ Militants fired on the escapees as they fled, and the official said his companion was hit from behind. “He told me to let go of him. I said no, I’ll carry you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined hands and we went down the hills and out of firing range.”
Mr Mehboob, Mr Allahdita, the police official and his companion all managed to escape the Jaffar Express alive as the FC attacked the militants.