The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the Zafar Express going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan to speak. The BLA claims that more than 30 Pakistani soldiers and others have been killed in the last 24 hours. At the same time, the Pakistani army has rescued 108 people trapped inside the train so far. The help of goods train was taken to save these passengers. After being released from the clutches of BLA, eyewitnesses have told the tragedy of that terrible scene.
First exploded, then firing up to one hour
Mushtaq Muhammad was also in the train hijacked by BLA. He was present in the number three coaches of the train. He said that the train was attacked by a very big explosion. The train was suddenly stopped after the explosion. Shortly after which firing was started. The firing continued for an hour. During this firing, no person present at the scene could survive.
Ishaq Noor, who was riding in the bogie number seven of the same train, was going from Quetta to Rawalpindi with his wife and two children. He said that ‘the explosion was so intense that the windows and doors of the train were shaken and a child sitting next to me fell.’ When the firing started and the bullets were felt at the coaches, Ishaq Noor took down with one of his children. According to Ishaq, the firing continued for about fifty minutes. During that time people were oblivious because they did not know what was going to happen next.
In one stroke, 11 people were killed inside the coach
Gradually the firing was stopped and then the gunmen entered the bogies. He started looking at the ID cards of some people and took some of them aside. Three people were guarding the doors of our bogie. He told the people that he does not care about citizens, women, elderly and Balochis.
All the armed armed were talking in Baluchi language and their leader was repeatedly telling them to keep an eye on the security personnel. Ishaq said that about eleven people were killed in his coach and said that they are all security personnel.
Ishaq said that during this time a person tried to protest a little, he was violently killed and then several more rounds were fired to scare the people. Due to which all the people present in the bogey got scared and started following the instructions of the armed people. However, Ishaq told that in the evening he told us that we are not killing Baloch, women, children and the elderly.
Similarly, in the train, Mohammad Ashraf boarded the Lahore Jafar Express from Quetta to meet his loved ones on Tuesday morning. According to Mohammad Ashraf, the extremists killed the elderly, common citizens, women and children. He said that after the rescue, we walked for three to four hours and reached the station. Because there was no energy left after being in captivity without eating anything for 24 hours.
Also, others rescued were tired. Apart from this, women, elderly and children were also among the rescue people. In such a situation, they could not walk too fast. At the same time, it took longer to rescue. Because some people were bringing the goods together. While there were some elderly people in the train, who had to be picked up on their shoulders.
The scene was like doom
Mohammad Ashraf says that according to my estimate, he (extremist) took about two hundred and fifty people with him and his number was close to thirty. Similarly, the passenger of Bahawalpur Bashir was traveling with his wife Alia and two children. He said that the gunmen asked us not to look back. However, after the rescue we have reached Paneer railway station.
