Latest news with #MuhammadKashif
Express Tribune
31-03-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
Kindness abounds this Eid season
In the spirit of Eid, philanthropists spread joy by distributing gifts to low-income families and individuals in various areas, ensuring they're included in the festive celebrations. The recipients were overwhelmed with gratitude, offering special prayers for their benefactors. The Choti Khushi Group discreetly distributed Eid gifts among needy families in FC Area, Liaquatabad, and surrounding neighbourhoods on Sunday. The group's organiser Asif Khan said that Eid is a festival of joy, but some families are unable to celebrate it due to financial difficulties. They cannot afford to buy clothes and footwear for their families. Therefore, their group, with limited resources, distributed Eid gifts to these families so they too could celebrate Eid. Deputy organiser Muhammad Kashif said that the Eid gifts were distributed among women, children, and people of various age groups. The group provided ready-made shalwar kameez and footwear for children, girls, women and men. The Eid gift packs included small, medium, and large-sized clothes and footwear. He added that each Eid gift was worth up to Rs2,000. The group distributed gifts on a limited scale, while other welfare organisations and philanthropists also contributed. He suggested that if such initiatives were carried out at the neighbourhood level, every low-income household could partake in Eid celebrations. Fakhar, a balloon seller and father of one, said his income is limited. He could not afford to buy clothes and footwear for himself and his family for Eid but thanks to the philanthropists' help for adding joy to their Eid. A woman, Roshan Begum, mentioned that philanthropists provided Eid gifts for her two daughters and son, calling it a noble act. A young girl, Fatima Saleem, stated that her father had passed away, and her mother works as a domestic worker.
Gulf Today
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Operation against hijacked train complete, 33 separatists killed, says Pakistan army
A military operation against militants who hijacked a train carrying hundreds of passengers in southwest Pakistan has ended, a spokesman for the army said late on Wednesday. Some 33 militants and 21 hostages were killed during the operation, the spokesman said in a television broadcast. Dozens of separatist Balochi militants blew up a railway track and lobbed rockets on Tuesday at the Jaffar Express, carrying more than 400 passengers, authorities said previously. Some of the militants wore suicide vests and were seated among the hostages, the government said, complicating rescue efforts. 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 assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, who released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from mountainous hiding places and storming onto the carriages. "Information suggests that some militants have fled, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous areas," a security official in the area told AFP. Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in the provincial capital Quetta, told AFP 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." At a railway station in Quetta, paramilitary troops brought empty coffins that will be sent to the site of the incident. "I can't find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying," Muhammad Bilal, who had been travelling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train, told AFP. Outsiders identified The BLA has staged a series of recent attacks against security forces and ethnic groups from outside the province they accuse of benefiting from the region's wealth. The group has demanded an exchange with security forces for its imprisoned members. The train driver, a police officer and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam. Several passengers told AFP that gunmen demanded to see identity cards to confirm who was from outside the province, similar to a spate of recent attacks carried out by the BLA. "They came and checked IDs and service cards and shot two soldiers in front of me and took the other four to... I don't know where," said one passenger who asked not to be identified, after walking four hours to the nearest train station. "Those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists," he said. Around 80 of the released passengers were taken to Quetta under "tight security," said a police official who was not authorised to speak to the media. Agence France-Presse
Arab News
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Security forces free 104 hostages as militants hijack passenger train in Pakistan's Balochistan
QUETTA/KARACHI: Pakistani security officials said on Tuesday 104 hostages had been freed after separatist militants hijacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, with a gunbattle raging on hours after the assault began. A low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan is one of the chronic security problems undermining stability in Pakistan. The separatists accuse the government of stripping the province's natural resources and leaving its people mired in poverty. They say security forces routinely abduct, torture and execute ethnic Baloch, accusations echoed by human rights campaigners. Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are uplifting the province through development projects, including multi-billion-dollar schemes funded by China. Insurgents in the province also target civilians, especially Pakistanis from other ethnic groups who have settled in Balochistan. The latest attack on the Quetta-Peshawar bound Jaffar Express occurred in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan. The Baloch Liberation Army, the most prominent among separatist outfits operating in the province, accepted responsibility in a statement sent to the media and said it was holding 214 people hostage. The Jaffar Express train was hijacked while it was en route to the northwestern city of Peshawar from the provincial capital of Quetta, carrying 425 passengers, according to Muhammad Kashif, a spokesman for Pakistan Railways Quetta Division. 'Security forces have safely rescued 104 passengers from the terrorists,' a security official with direct knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity and adding that the released people included 58 men, 31 women and 115 children. He said troops had surrounded the militants and an exchange of fire was ongoing, with 16 insurgents killed. 'The complex operation is being carried out with utmost caution due to the use of women and children as shields and the difficult terrain,' the official added. 'RULES OF WAR' Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area, covering 347,190 square kilometers and constituting 44 percent of the country's total landmass. However, the remote province bordering Afghanistan and Iran is the country's most backward region in terms of nearly all social and economic indicators. There are no Internet and mobile services in nearly 60 percent of the province, according to independent monitors, and areas which have such services often see shutdowns and months-long disruptions due to security reasons. Speaking to Arab News, Imran Hayat, the divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways in Quetta, said the department was unable to gather too many details of the attack or communicate with staff aboard the train as militants had carried out the assault in a 'no-signal zone.' 'We haven't retrieved a single body or injured from the area yet due to the communication blackout,' he said. The BLA said it had blown up the railway track and taken control of the train. 'Under the rules of war, these 214 hostages are considered prisoners of war and BLA is prepared for a prisoner exchange,' the group said. 'The occupying state of Pakistan is given 48 hours to immediately and unconditionally release Baloch political prisoners, forcibly disappeared persons and national resistance activists.' A post shared by Arab News Pakistan (@arabnewspk) The group warned that the hostages included military, paramilitary, police and intelligence officers, who would be killed if the BLA's demands were not met within the stipulated period 'or if the occupying state attempts any military action during this time.' The separatists have also recently attacked projects being developed as part of the $65-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, in Balochistan. The program is also developing a deep-water port close to the new $200-million airport in Gwadar, a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman and China.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pakistan launches 'full-scale' operation to free train hostages
Pakistan forces launched a "full-scale" operation on Wednesday to rescue train passengers taken hostage by militants in the mountainous southwest, with security sources saying 155 had been freed in the past 24 hours. More than 450 passengers were on board when militants captured the train at the entrance of a tunnel in a remote frontier district, with an unknown number of hostages still being held. "Information suggests that some militants have fled, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous areas," a security official in the area told AFP. Militants bombed a section of the railway track and stormed the train on Tuesday afternoon in southwest Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, where attacks by separatists have risen sharply in the past year. According to security sources, the "terrorists have positioned suicide bombers right next to innocent hostage passengers". Three people have been killed, including the train driver, during the siege in mountainous Sibi district. A security official told AFP "a full-scale operation" would aim to free the rest of the captives. "Security forces have safely rescued 155 passengers... 27 terrorists have been eliminated," a security source said. Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in the provincial capital Quetta, told AFP on Tuesday afternoon that the 450 passengers on board had been taken hostage. It was not immediately clear how many people remained on board, but passengers who spent hours walking 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." At a railway station in Quetta, paramilitary troops brought empty coffins that will be sent to the site of the incident. "I can't find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying," Muhammad Bilal, who had been travelling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train, told AFP. - Outsiders identified - The assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group that has staged a series of recent attacks against security forces and ethnic groups from outside the province they accuse of benefiting from the region's wealth. The group has demanded an exchange with security forces for its imprisoned members. The train driver, a police officer and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam. Several passengers told AFP that gunmen demanded to see identity cards to confirm who was from outside the province, similar to a spate of recent attacks carried out by the BLA. "They came and checked IDs and service cards and shot two soldiers in front of me and took the other four to... I don't know where," said one passenger who asked not to be identified, after walking four hours to the nearest train station. "Those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists," he said. Around 80 of the released passengers were taken to Quetta under "tight security", said a police official who was not authorised to speak to the media. - Growing insurgency - Authorities restrict access to some areas of Balochistan where many energy and infrastructure projects are backed by China, which has invested billions in the region including in a major port and airport. The BLA claim the region's natural resources are being exploited by outsiders and has increased attacks targeting Pakistanis from other regions, security forces and foreign infrastructure projects. The group launched coordinated overnight attacks last year that included taking control of a major highway and shooting dead travellers from other ethnic groups, stunning the country. The BLA claimed an attack in February that killed 17 paramilitary soldiers and a woman suicide bomber killed a soldier this month. "The valuable natural resources in Balochistan belong to the Baloch nation," a BLA statement said at the time. "Pakistani military generals and their Punjabi elite are looting these resources for their own luxury." Baloch residents regularly stage protests against the state, which they accuse of rounding up innocent people in its crackdown on militancy. Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan but last year saw a surge in violence in the province compared with 2023, according to the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies. It found 2024 was the deadliest year for Pakistan in a decade, with violence rising along the Afghanistan border since the Taliban government took back power in Kabul in 2021. Pakistan blames its neighbour for allowing militant groups safe haven to plan and launch attacks on Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies. mak-zz/ecl/mtp
Arab News
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
155 hostages freed, 27 militants killed in Pakistan train siege: security sources
QUETTA/KARACHI: Pakistani security officials said on Tuesday 155 hostages had been freed after separatist militants hijacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, with a gunbattle raging on hours after the assault began. A low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan is one of the chronic security problems undermining stability in Pakistan. The separatists accuse the government of stripping the province's natural resources and leaving its people mired in poverty. They say security forces routinely abduct, torture and execute ethnic Baloch, accusations echoed by human rights campaigners. Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are uplifting the province through development projects, including multi-billion-dollar schemes funded by China. Insurgents in the province also target civilians, especially Pakistanis from other ethnic groups who have settled in Balochistan. The latest attack on the Quetta-Peshawar bound Jaffar Express occurred in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan. The Baloch Liberation Army, the most prominent among separatist outfits operating in the province, accepted responsibility in a statement sent to the media and said it was holding 214 people hostage. The Jaffar Express train was hijacked while it was en route to the northwestern city of Peshawar from the provincial capital of Quetta, carrying 425 passengers, according to Muhammad Kashif, a spokesman for Pakistan Railways Quetta Division. 'Security forces have safely rescued 104 passengers from the terrorists,' a security official with direct knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity and adding that the released people included 58 men, 31 women and 115 children. He said troops had surrounded the militants and an exchange of fire was ongoing, with 16 insurgents killed. 'The complex operation is being carried out with utmost caution due to the use of women and children as shields and the difficult terrain,' the official added. 'RULES OF WAR' Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area, covering 347,190 square kilometers and constituting 44 percent of the country's total landmass. However, the remote province bordering Afghanistan and Iran is the country's most backward region in terms of nearly all social and economic indicators. There are no Internet and mobile services in nearly 60 percent of the province, according to independent monitors, and areas which have such services often see shutdowns and months-long disruptions due to security reasons. Speaking to Arab News, Imran Hayat, the divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways in Quetta, said the department was unable to gather too many details of the attack or communicate with staff aboard the train as militants had carried out the assault in a 'no-signal zone.' 'We haven't retrieved a single body or injured from the area yet due to the communication blackout,' he said. The BLA said it had blown up the railway track and taken control of the train. 'Under the rules of war, these 214 hostages are considered prisoners of war and BLA is prepared for a prisoner exchange,' the group said. 'The occupying state of Pakistan is given 48 hours to immediately and unconditionally release Baloch political prisoners, forcibly disappeared persons and national resistance activists.' The group warned that the hostages included military, paramilitary, police and intelligence officers, who would be killed if the BLA's demands were not met within the stipulated period 'or if the occupying state attempts any military action during this time.' The separatists have also recently attacked projects being developed as part of the $65-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, in Balochistan. The program is also developing a deep-water port close to the new $200-million airport in Gwadar, a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman and China.
