Pakistan accused India on Friday of being the main sponsor of terrorism in Balochistan, as it revealed details of a deadly train hijacking by separatist militants in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
The Jaffar Express, traveling from Quetta to Peshawar, was attacked on Tuesday by militants who blew up rail tracks, opened fire, and took several passengers hostage. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack.
A military operation was launched to free the passengers, with the military’s media wing confirming on Wednesday that all 33 attackers had been killed. The operation involved hundreds of troops, special forces, and military helicopters in remote mountainous terrain.
During a press conference in Islamabad, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, accompanied by Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, alleged that the Indian media led a disinformation campaign during the attack, using artificial intelligence-generated content and old footage to glorify the incident.
Revisiting the details of the incident, the DG ISPR stated that the terrorists had intentionally chosen a remote location for the attack, which made the operation difficult.
"They operated in multiple groups, securing strategic positions on higher ground,” he said, adding that after planting an improvised explosive device (IED) to disable the train, they seized the passengers as hostages.”
Pointing to India, the army’s spokesperson stated that the "main sponsor” of terrorism in Balochistan, in this incident and others, "is your eastern neighbor”.
The DG ISPR said that both Indian social and mainstream media were involved in a disinformation campaign about the attack. “They propagated footage provided by a globally recognized terrorist group.”
Presenting clips of Indian officials and public figures, as well as Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, speaking about attempts to destabilize Balochistan, the DG ISPR asserted that the Jaffar Express attack was part of an ongoing strategy with similar objectives.
Furthermore, he blamed Afghanistan for providing refuge to the "handlers” of this incident’s attackers, who they were in direct contact with during the incident, he said.
“This is yet another incident of terrorism linked to Afghanistan,” he said. “Even in the recent attack on Bannu cantonment, Afghans were involved.”
He said the militants had used Indian and Afghan weapons in the recent incident and previous attacks.
Lt. Gen. Chaudhry provided an update on the casualties, stating that the total number of deaths had risen to 26. He said that the figure could rise further, as 37 of the 354 hostages rescued alive sustained injuries.
“Out of the 26 casualties, 18 were from either the army or Frontier Corps (FC), three were railway personnel, and five were civilians,” he said.
He also detailed additional operational casualties suffered during the rescue mission.
“As I mentioned earlier, three FC personnel were martyred when their picket was attacked,” he said. “On the morning of March 12, one FC soldier was martyred by a sniper, and another FC soldier was martyred while on duty inside the train. In total, we had five operational casualties.”
Counterterrorism efforts
Asked about the surge in terrorism incidents, Lt. Gen. Chaudhry said that militant groups were gaining space in Afghanistan.
“In 2025, law enforcement agencies conducted over 11,000 intelligence-based operations,” he said. “One of the reasons for the increase in terrorism is that militants are finding safe havens across the border.”
‘Most successful train hostage rescue in the world’
Chaudhry said the terrain and lack of mobile coverage posed significant challenges to the operation.
“It was very difficult to reach physically,” he said during the press briefing. “The terrorists intercepted the train using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), raided a Frontier Corps picket—killing three personnel—and then took hostages.”
He said the militants initially gathered women and children inside the train, while moving others outside to high ground. Security forces neutralized suicide bombers before launching a bogie-by-bogie clearance operation. No hostages were harmed during the final rescue, according to the military.
“This was the most successful train hostage rescue in the world,” Lt. Gen. Chaudhry said. “It was conducted with great courage and planning and was completed within 36 hours.”
‘Forces of evil’
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti also denounced the attack on unarmed civilians, calling it a “so-called fight against the state” that was nothing more than a façade driven by evil forces. He insisted that the perpetrators should only be referred to as “terrorists”.
“We’re in an intelligence-driven war waged against the state of Pakistan by RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and other hostile agencies through Afghanistan, especially because Afghan soil is being used against us,” he said.
He criticized past governments for following a policy of “appeasement” toward terrorist groups, which he said had allowed key figures to be released, enabling them to reestablish insurgent camps against the state.
Bugti asserted that security forces had the capacity and capability to “handle this mess very soon,” adding that such surges in attacks were not unprecedented.
When asked about the link between terrorism and the issue of missing persons, Bugti called it a “dicey subject” that had been debated for a long time.
“It is dicey because the count itself is unclear. I don’t want to justify anything—if even one person is missing, there is no justification. But there is a major difference between enforced disappearance and self-disappearance,” he added.
