Militants Hijack Pakistan Train, Security Forces End Two-Day Rescue Operation

The ride through Bolan district still carries the memory of gunfire, a blown track and hostages pulled from a Peshawar-bound train near the Mashkaf Tunnel. What began as an ordinary journey for about 440 passengers became a two-day rescue operation that ended with 33 attackers dead, four Frontier Corps personnel killed and dozens of civilians dead or wounded.

The attack unfolded on March 11, 2025, when militants affiliated with the Baloch Liberation Army ambushed the Jaffar Express in Balochistan, opened fire and blew up the track to stop the train. Women and children were among the passengers seized as hostages. Security forces completed the rescue operation on March 12 after fighting in terrain that made every movement slow and exposed, with the railway and nearby highway splitting near Mashkaf before converging again near Mach. The Mashkaf Tunnel lies about 157 kilometres from Quetta and roughly 21 kilometres from Sibi, a geography that helped turn the assault into a protracted standoff.

Officials later said 21 passengers were killed by the attackers before the operation ended. Dawn reported the death toll among passengers at 26, with 40 injured. The incident marked the first known case in Pakistan of an entire train and its occupants being taken hostage, a grim escalation from earlier attacks in which militants had bombed tracks or tried to derail trains without seizing control of a full passenger service.

The political response was swift. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari praised the security forces after the rescue, while the United States, China, Iran, the European Union and the United Nations condemned the hijacking and hostage-taking. The United States Embassy in Islamabad also signaled continued support for Pakistan after the operation. Pakistani officials said the attackers were in contact with handlers or masterminds in Afghanistan during the assault, deepening the regional dimensions of the case.

For passengers, though, the immediate question was not diplomacy but whether the route could still be trusted. Pakistan Railways suspended some operations to and from Balochistan after the attack, then resumed Jaffar Express service on March 31, 2025. The restart restored a critical link between Quetta and Peshawar, but it did not erase the fear that now shadows one of the country’s most exposed rail lines. In Bolan’s narrow passes, the promise of normal travel remains fragile, and every departure still runs against the memory of how quickly a routine trip turned into a hostage crisis.