The BLA and fellow insurgent groups accuse Pakistan’s federal government of unfairly exploiting the natural resources like oil and minerals found in Balochistan, the country’s largest but least populous province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Insurgents who attacked a passenger train carrying 440 passengers in restive southwestern Pakistan killed 21 hostages before security forces killed all 33 of the assailants, and all other passengers were rescued, officials said Wednesday. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the separatist Baloch Liberation Army group was behind the attack, and the military operation “has successfully reached its logical conclusion.”
The Jaffar Express, carrying around 425 passengers from Quetta to Peshawar, was ambushed on Tuesday by heavily armed militants from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), who took a number of passengers hostage.
