Pakistan security forces free 190 hostages in train siege

SIBI, Pakistan - Pakistan security sources said on Wednesday the military had freed 190 train passengers taken hostage by gunmen as a deadly siege in the mountainous southwest stretched through its second day.

More than 450 passengers were on board when a militant separatist group captured the train in a remote frontier district of Balochistan province on Tuesday afternoon, with an unknown number of hostages still being held.

"So far, 190 passengers have been rescued, and 30 terrorists have been killed. Due to the presence of women and children with suicide bombers, extreme caution is being exercised," a security source told AFP.

"The operation continues to eliminate the remaining militants."

An AFP photographer in Quetta, the provincial capital, witnessed about 140 empty coffins being transported by train to the incident site on Wednesday.

The assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from hiding places in the mountains and storming onto the carriages.

Attacks by separatist groups who accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, have soared in the past few years. 

The deaths of three people have been confirmed so far -- the train driver, a police officer and a soldier -- according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam.

A security official in the area also told AFP: "Information suggests that some militants have fled, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous areas."

Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, said on Tuesday afternoon that the 450 passengers on board had been taken hostage.

Passengers who walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety described being set free by the militants.

"Our women pleaded with them, and they spared us," Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian labourer told AFP on Wednesday. "They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us."

Muhammad Bilal, who was travelling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train, described their ordeal as "terrifying".

"I can't find the words to describe how we managed to escape," he told AFP.