The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked a train, the Jaffar Express, in Bolan on March 11, 2025 and took hundreds of people hostage as the train was travelling from Quetta to Peshawar. The Pakistani Army managed to rescue 104 passengers on March 12, with the Army and the Baloch rebels engaging in a gunfight. It may be noted that the Baloch rebels have repeatedly targeted this particular train in recent times.

The BLA rebels attacked the Jaffar Express in a similar manner in 2018, 2013 and also in 2024. They planned to sabotage the Punjab-bound train in 2018 by placing explosives on its tracks. However, the train narrowly escaped the attack as the rebels triggered the explosion with a remote-controlled device when the train was just 200ft away from the spot. Hence, the loco pilot managed to stop the train.

The Pakistani Taliban (formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organisation of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border, has also targeted the same train on a number of occasions. In 2023, there were two attacks on the Jaffar Express at the same location within a gap of two months. The Baloch rebels targeted the train in Bolan on January 19, 2023. A bomb exploded immediately after the train derailed, killing at least 13 people. In February 2023, the rebels again targeted the train that was on its way from Quetta to Peshawar, claiming 12 lives. Later, the rebels also carried out a deadly suicide attack at Quetta railway station, killing 26 and injuring more than 40 people.

Although the Jaffar Express carries common passengers, the train is mainly used by the Pakistani Army personnel to travel to Balochistan Province from other parts of Pakistan. For more than two decades, the Baloch insurgents have been resorting to guerrilla tactics in this Pakistani province, launching insurgencies at various times. The rebels changed their tactics in 2018 and started targeting trains, as well as buses. The Baloch rebels carried out a suicide attack on a bus, carrying Chinese engineers, in August 2018. Since 2018, they have carried out more than 10 suicide attacks in Gwadar, Karachi, Turbat and Bolan.

Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, is known for its vast and abundant natural resources, including minerals, oil and natural gas. Meanwhile, the Baloch people have accused China of looting their natural resources through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). They staged protests against the CPEC Project several times. In October 2024, the Majeed Brigade (a group named after a BLA commander killed by the Pakistani Army in Quetta in 2010) carried out a suicide attack near Karachi Airport as they targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers and investors. At least 50 Chinese officials and Pakistani security personnel were killed after a car loaded with explosives drove into the convoy.

The Baloch people have claimed that the resources of their province have been looted to a greater extent since the creation of the CPEC. The rebels have also declared a war against the Pakistani Government in order to prevent the looting and to keep Balochistan under their control. The Government of Pakistan, too, has deployed Army personnel in the resource-rich province to suppress the rebellion. Media reports suggest that the Pakistani Army and Frontier Corps are violating basic Human Rights, apart from committing genocide, in Balochistan.

Muhammad Shoaib, a security analyst and an academic, has stressed that BLA attacks surged not just numerically, but also in lethality. “The organisation has gained strength over the past few years. It has enhanced its capability on many fronts: propaganda, recruitment, target selection, intelligence and adaptability,” he told Al Jazeera. According to Shoaib, the BLA has been able to spread its message through social media and attract educated youth. “Put simply, it has learnt the art of staying in the news and keeping state apparatus engaged in multiple fronts,” he told the media, mentioning that there were signs that the BLA’s recruitment was on the rise.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das