The Jaffar Express travels a route over 1,600 kilometres long that begins in Quetta, goes through Jacobabad and Sukkur in Sindh before winding its way through Punjab’s major cities ultimately ending in Peshawar. The journey takes between 34 to 37 hours and is particularly slow as it passes through Balochistan’s rugged terrain.
Tuesday’s ill-fated train took off at 9 am with 450 passengers on board, even though 750 people had made reservations. It travelled around 150 kilometres to Bolan, where a series of tunnels begins over the rail track.
The train made it to Mashkaf tunnel, the eighth out of 17 tunnels, around 1 pm where it came under attack on Tuesday.
According to an AFP report, the militants bombed a section of the train track before opening fire and storming the train. Dawn quoted officials to add that rockets had been fired at the train as well.
The train came to halt as the driver the driver, identified as Amjad Yasin, was severely injured. He was later reported to have succumbed to his injuries.
Survivors told news outlets that the train derailed as an explosion was heard and clouds of dust went everywhere. Passengers threw themselves on the floor and covered themselves with luggage to hide as gunshots rang out.
One survivor told Urdu News, that the attackers boarded the train and separated people travelling with women, children and elderly. The survivor said that he believed there were around 100 attackers in total.
The released survivors had to travel on foot for seven kilometres to reach Panir railway station where they received help.
Another survivor of the attack told AFP that after entering the train, the attackers checked the ID cards and employment cards of the passengers. They then took away those who were from Punjab.
Meanwhile, security forces launched a rescue operation armed with gunship helicopters. However, Radio Pakistan reported that the terrorists split into smaller groups. Intense gunfire was reported from the site.
According to researcher and academic Dr Dost Muhammad Barrech, choosing the tunnel as the site of the attack meant that communication would be cut off from as there were no signals. It also helped by keeping providing the terrorists shelter as an operation loomed.
By Tuesday night, security officials said that 104 passengers had been rescued from the train. By Wednesday morning, the number had risen to 155.
Security officials added that a total of 27 terrorists have been killed during the operation.
With hundreds of passengers still unaccounted for, state media reported that terrorists were holding women and children hostage at three different locations.
