2025 Jaffar Express hijacking
The Jaffar Express, a Pakistani passenger train travelling from Quetta to Peshawar with at least 380 passengers on board, was hijacked by the Balochistan Liberation Army on 11 March 2025. The attackers detonated explosives in tunnels and on the train tracks before opening fire on the train, halting it in a mountainous region which was difficult for authorities to access. The organisation issued a 48-hour ultimatum for Baloch political prisoners to be released or they would execute hostages, although they had already released some. As a result, Pakistan Railways temporarily suspended its train operations between Balochistan and the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.
From 11 to 12 March 2025, the Pakistan Armed Forces launched an operation, codenamed Operation Green Bolan, to raid the hijacked train multiple times, eventually releasing 354 hostages and killing the 33 BLA insurgents. Pakistani officials said at least 64 people, including 18 soldiers on leave who were identified among the passengers and killed by the attackers, and 33 attackers, were killed during the incident, while 38 other passengers were injured.
In response to the insurgency, the Pakistani political parties unanimously passed a resolution condemning it during a National Assembly session. Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, condemned the attack as "cowardly acts", sent condolences to the victims' families and, after the resolution of the crisis, said that the BLA members had been "sent to hell". The attack on civilians by BLA was universally condemned by various global figures, who voiced their support towards Pakistan against terrorism. Afghanistan and India, historically having been accused of assisting the BLA by Pakistan, have both denied claims of involvement in the attack. Following the attack, Pakistan Railways implemented plans to increase patrol forces in the country's various railway systems and more thoroughly inspect passengers and transport vehicles to prevent similar attacks. Additionally, both surveillance drones and closed-circuit television cameras were set to be utilised to further monitor train and railway activity upon resumed operations. Protests in Balochistan, organised by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, began on 20 March 2025 in part due to police crackdown on civilians gathering at the Quetta Civil Hospital to identify bodies from the train hijacking.
Background
The province of Balochistan has been involved in insurgencies and conflicts by Baloch separatists against the government of Pakistan since at least 1948. This is due to the alleged forced disappearances and violations of the rights of Baloch people by the Pakistan army and extreme poverty as well as under-developed infrastructure in Balochistan. Since 2001, armed groups in the region have conducted various violent attacks and campaigns to discourage major development in the region that they believe would benefit other provinces.The Balochistan Liberation Army is a Baloch ethnonationalist group founded in 2000. Members of the organisation stated that their intentions were to achieve regional independence from Pakistan and control over the land's natural resources, primarily its oil and minerals. The faction had previously launched attacks on civilians and, most often, Pakistani security forces. BLA also targets Chinese nationals within the region, as they had been involved in economic infrastructure networking as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. It has officially been banned in Pakistan since 2006. Pakistan had previously accused India and Afghanistan of backing anti-Pakistani militants, which both BLA and the respective countries have denied. Since then, BLA has launched multiple terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of many people; among the most recent attacks in the region prior to the 2025 train hijacking was a November 2024 bombing at Quetta railway station that killed 32. The Jaffar Express passenger train was previously attacked by the BLA near the town of Machh on 7 October 2016 via two explosions that killed six people and injured 19 others.
Hijacking
At 9a.m. on 11 March 2025, the Jaffar Express train departed Quetta en route to Peshawar, a journey of around. The train consisted of nine coaches and the locomotive. Around 450 passengers were reported to have been on board, including military personnel. Prior to the attack, the BLA insurgents sabotaged the train tracks with 8 improvised explosive devices, so that the train would stop within the mountainous area. The explosives detonation caused the train's fuel tank to explode, causing a sudden halt and four coaches to derail. Some from Quetta and about west of the city of Sibi, the BLA hijacked the train inside Tunnel No. 8, between Pehro Kunri and Mushkaf stations. The group blew up explosives on the train tracks before opening fire on the train.Five police officers and two Frontier Corps personnel escorted the train, and, according to one police officer, "hundreds" of militants surrounded the tracks. The BLA insurgents were equipped with launchers and guns and threatened to kill people if they did not come out of the train. The defenders fought and engaged with the attackers, giving resistance for over an hour and a half until they were depleted of ammunition which resulted in the defenders eventually being defenceless. The assistant train driver Saad Qamar used wireless communications to warn a nearby train station about the attack, but it was cut off after the engine was turned off to prevent fire from the leaking diesel cans hit by gunfire.
As soon as the train stopped, dozens of militants came down from the mountains and boarded the train and separated women and men into groups and checked their identification cards. According to the testimony of a passenger, the assailants did not harm women or elderly people, although another witness stated that the BLA generally rounded hostages up by ethnicity but also executed soldiers or people they did not like on the spot. Because the hijacking occurred in an isolated mountainous area, the fate of the hostages was not immediately clear. According to Shahid Rind, the Balochistan provincial government spokesman, the surrounding terrain prevented authorities from quickly reaching the area. Pakistan Railways temporarily suspended its train operations between Balochistan and Punjab and Sindh in response to the attack.
As night fell, most of the attackers withdrew, leaving only 20 to 25 men behind to guard the captives. In the darkness, some hostages attempted to flee, but the militants opened fire. At dawn, when FC reinforcements arrived, drawing the militants' focus, several people, including a police officer, managed to escape.
The hostages were reported to be mostly law enforcement personnel and non-Baloch civilians. The militants kept a close watch on the train's security personnel and warned authorities against attempting to rescue the hostages themselves. Some of the insurgents were equipped with suicide bombs and sat next to the hostages to further prevent an easy rescue by authorities. The BLA spokesman Jeeyand Baloch offered exchanges between the train hostages and jailed militants. The BLA released some civilian hostages such as Balochistan residents, the elderly, women, and children while keeping those who were government workers or military personnel on leave to return to their homes in Punjab for Ramadan. The same day that the hijacking occurred, BLA issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Pakistani government in which political prisoners, including Baloch movement affiliates, were to be unconditionally released. The next day, it threatened to "punish" five hostages for each hour after the ultimatum had expired. Pakistani officials said they then were yet to communicate with anyone on the train as the area has no internet and mobile network coverage.
Rescue
Pakistani security forces launched a large-scale counter-operation — named Operation Green Bolan — at the site. The security forces engaged in the conflict, freeing a majority of the hostages and killing most of the insurgents. Lasting for over 30 hours, the hostage crisis concluded on 12 March 2025 with 354 total hostages being rescued according to Pakistan's military. Pakistani officials accused the BLA of using women and children as human shields, which the insurgent group denied.The rescue was performed mainly by Zarrar Company, an elite unit of the Army’s Special Services Group. According to Junior Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry, the Pakistan military sent in hundreds of troops and also deployed the airforce and special forces. The special forces first killed the suicide bombers and then troops went from carriage to carriage to kill the rest of the militants.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his ministers visited Balochistan in response to review the situation and express solidarity with its victims. According to a witness, he and other hostages did not have any food and had to drink water from the train's restroom; the Pakistani army provided the rescued hostages food and water.