On March 11, 2025, an unprecedented incident occurred in the Pakistani province of Balochistan – armed militants seized a passenger train “Jaffar Express” in a deserted mountainous area, having previously blown up the railway track, causing the train to derail. The Jafar Express passenger train, which departed from Quetta on the morning of March 11 at 9:30 am, was attacked as it passed through the Gudalar and Pero Kunni areas.
A group called the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack and issued the following message:
“The Baloch Liberation Army has carried out a meticulously planned operation in Mashkaf, Dhadar, Bolan, where our freedom fighters have blown up the railway track, forcing the Jaffar Express to come to a halt. The fighters swiftly took control of the train, holding all passengers hostage. The BLA issues a clear warning that if the occupying forces attempt to conduct any military operation, the consequences will be severe. All hundreds of hostages will be executed, and the responsibility for this bloodshed will lie solely with the occupying forces.”
It was also said that “any military incursion will be met with an equally forceful response. So far, six military personnel have been killed, and hundreds of passengers remain under BLA custody.”
Despite this, the counter-terrorism units of the security forces, together with the Pakistan army, launhed an operation to free the hostages on the same day, having previously cordoned off the entire territory where the incident occurred. During the operation, rail traffic between the provinces of Balochistan on the one hand, and Punjab and Sindh on the other, was suspended.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack on the train, saying the attacks on innocent passengers were inhumane and reprehensible. Official messages condemning the terrorist attack were also received from foreign countries and the United Nations.
Although The Baloch Liberation Army has previously carried out numerous terrorist attacks in this province, from targeted bombings to small-arms attacks, the hostage-taking of a train occurred in Pakistan for the first time in history. Last November, however, at least 26 people, including 16 security personnel, were killed and 61 others injured in a suicide bombing at a railway station in Quetta. Then the terrorist detonated an explosive device on the platform, where a large number of people were waiting for the same passenger train “Jaffar Express”.
By the evening of March 12, the Pakistani media reported that all the terrorists had been killed.
It was also reported that ten soldiers who were conducting a counter-terrorism operation were killed, and 37 wounded among the freed hostages. But since there were about 450 people on the train, and the statistics of the rescued passengers showed 190, it is not clear what happened to the rest. This is probably due to the fact that more than 200 people from the security forces were traveling on the same train, which may have caused the attack on the train.
There were also discrepancies in the estimates of the number of terrorists. It was said that there were three dozen militants killed. But in an interview with GeoNews on March 12, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said that 70 to 80 terrorists were involved in the incident.
He elaborated that “security forces were practising caution because of the lives involved…” and that “those who lead these terrorists are in a neighboring country; those who give them dollars are in another country. Our enemy India definitely supports this.”
Local proxies of external forces
In total, there are a large number of terrorist and extremist organizations operating in Pakistan, which flourished especially during the so-called Global War on Terrorism declared by George W. Bush. Over the years, only some of the terrorists have been eradicated, but new ones have taken their place.
The 2024Global Terrorism Index places Pakistan in second place after Burkina Faso, which indicates a rather serious situation. After all, such ratings affect foreign investment, the visa regime, and the image of the country as a whole.
The most problematic in Pakistan are considered to be the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (a branch of the Afghan Taliban, where the main striking force is the Pashtuns – it is most active in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which is associated with the well-known ISIS group and remnants of local branches of Al-Qaeda, as well as Baloch separatists. The peculiarity of the latter is that they actually operate on the territory of Balochistan province.
The umbrella organization is Baloch Raji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS), an alliance of three Balochi separatist organizations: the Baloch Liberation Army, Balochistan Liberation Front, and Baloch Republican Guard.
There is also The Majeed Brigade, which is known as the suicide squad of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
According to the Pakistani side, India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was involved in coordinating ties between Pakistani terrorist groups, creating a kind of consortium. Thus, the Pakistani branch of the Taliban began to train suicide bombers for The Majeed Brigade. There is also information that The Majeed Brigade is cooperating with Islamic State Khorasan Province.
Earlier, Pakistani intelligence had also repeatedly accused India of supporting separatists and extremists inside Pakistan, using neighboring Afghanistan for this purpose. Pakistani experts name the Gwadar deep-sea port, which is under operational control of China (another geopolitical rival of India) and is a key hub for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), to be yet another possible reason for this activity (in addition to the historical confrontation). Gwadar is located on the coast of Balochistan. And in the context of the presence of Chinese workers and the creation of transport infrastructure through this province, interested parties raised anti-government sentiments among the population. And this became a kind of fuel for the activities of extremist groups.
Global terror with a local flavor
It should be noted that there are also Baloch separatists in neighboring Iran (Sistan and Baluchestan provinces). Together with their Pakistani brothers in arms, they dream of creating an independent Balochistan. One of these organizations was the notorious Jundallah, whose leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, admitted after being detained in 2010 that he had collaborated with the CIA and received aid from them.
Indicatively, that recently one of the leaders of the Islamic State Khorasan Province, Sharifullah, was detained in Pakistan and extradited to the United States. At the same time, the administration of Donald Trump is considering the possibility of restrictive measures for citizens of Pakistan to enter the country, along with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and a number of other states included in the arc of the Greater Middle East.
Against the general background of the ongoing terror in Syria, the crisis in Palestine, as well as poorly controlled migration to Russia from Central Asian countries, where there are many adherents of radical views, the issues of coordinating actions against terrorism between the states concerned are becoming relevant again. But political nuances, such as the conflicting interests of India and Pakistan, will always cast a dark shadow over any such initiatives.
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