Pakistan Army is in a big mess over handling the crisis of hostages taken by Baloch Liberation Forces

The truth is only civilians have been freed but Pak Soldiers in train are sstill in Baloch custody

By Sushil Kutty

Wednesday afternoon the Pak Army was planning a “full-scale operation” to free Pak Army personnel taken hostage by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a train. This, after claiming that security forces had “rescued over 100 civilian hostages” when the reality was the BLA had already “released civilians, including women and children.”

Scores of these “freed people” trudged through the night and reached the safety of the “next railway station.” However, this narrative did not suit Pakistan and the Pak media began talking of “Indian propaganda” and “Indian social media outreach.” The Pakistan media were still peddling the “rescue narrative”, claiming that Pakistani security forces “rescued 155 passengers.”

The Jaffar Express was “carrying 450 passengers” but as happens in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, passengers without reservation far outnumber passengers with valid reservations and Jaffar Express must not have been any different. The Pakistani establishment will go to any extent to cover-up. And the Pak Army had the media’s back.

There was no “spot reporting” to talk of. All the “news breaks” were ladled out by the establishment. At 3pm, India time, the “rescue operation” was still on and scores of “hostages” were still in BLA custody. Many of the hostages had been whisked away into the mountain fastnesses of the “militants”.

Jaffar Express was a sitting duck for the BLA and a total failure for the India-centric Inter-Services Intelligence. Jaffar Express traverses daily between Quetta and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The railway track was blown up. The train was fired upon. The driver was killed. “20 soldiers” were slaughtered. The crumbling morale of the Pakistan Army is hard to disbelieve.

It was difficult to believe that the train, trapped inside a tunnel after the attack, could fall to security forces. Of course, both the Pakistani establishment and the Pakistani media were lying and are continuing to lie. If anybody is running propaganda, it is the Pakistan-media.

The BLA militants checked the IDs of Pak Army soldiers and killed those belonging to Punjab. “The train was stopped by armed men in Tunnel No 8” when the train was moving “slowly”. Jaffar Express has to move through 17 tunnels while travelling the stretch between Quetta and Peshawar.

The Baloch insurgents have been waging a war of independence for decades. This is by far the biggest strike by the BLA. and must have reminded Pakistan of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. On Tuesday, Pakistani media, one and all, blamed “India and India’s social media” for running “propaganda” and certain Indian television news channels courted controversy by taunting “Pakistani guests” invited to “debates”. Such India-Pakistan debates invariably descend into chaos and on Tuesday night the Jaffar Express debate didn’t change course.

That didn’t take away from the fact that Pakistan wasn’t telling the truth. Civilians, who escaped the train trudged miles to safety, saying they “escaped on their own” and that the situation in the train was “very, very bad.” One of them, a 49-year-old, didn’t want to tell his story to Pakistani TV news channels.

Balochistan is transforming and the Pak Army is losing morale. Pak Army soldiers aren’t happy heading into Balochistan, “Pakistan’s largest province.” This is the first time a train has been targeted and the Pakistanis don’t know how to deal with this sort of warfare.

The train was in rebel control in less than five minutes. Later statements said that a large contingent of Pak Army soldiers were heading home “on their annual leave”, a little hard to chew! It is also Ramzan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayers, but the Baloch are also Muslim!

Believing Pakistan requires unbelievably high concentrations of trust. Pakistani media outlets have been doing their best to pivot and divert. Pak Army has the average Pakistani’s back and the Pak Media is also average Pakistani. The truth about the Jaffar Express hijacking will be covered up.

The train had too many human beings herded as cattle in nine bogies when it was “Taken.” Talk that the Pakistani security forces had taken back control and “rescued passengers” was hastily put up, as a plain to the eyes and ears cover-up. A journalist should be allowed access to the “nine bogies” to get to the truth.

Truth is also that the Baloch militants’ goal is “liberation of their homeland” and not saving their own lives. Unlike the soldiers of the Pakistan Army, the BLA militants are a motivated bunch of “liberators.” Just like the Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh, who crafted the liberation of Bangladesh.

How many Pak Army soldiers will be willing to court death for keeping Balochistan? It requires fire in the belly! The separatist Balochs have that fire. Their war of attrition isn’t going to stop with a train hijacking. The BLA and other Baloch outfits are rag-tag bunches of “liberators” against a better-fitted and highly trained Pak Army. More than a 100 Pak Army personnel were in the Jaffar Express at sunrise on Wednesday.

The truth is, on March 11, 2025, militants of the Baloch Liberation Army hijacked Pakistan Railways’ Jaffar Express with 500 passengers on board including a contingent of Pak Army soldiers. The Baloch militants released all “civilian hostages” but kept as hostages over 180 Pak Army and paramilitary soldiers in their custody. This is the first time, Pak Army is in such a serious bind. (IPA Service)