Train Hijack: A Wake-Up Call for Pak Army

With its domestic security challenges multiplying, the army is continuously over-extending itself. There are Chinese concerns to mind too. Surely something has got to give

- LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN (RETD)

On March 11, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the Jaffar Express, holding over 450 passengers hostage and demanding the release of some Baloch political prisoners. The hijackers set a 48-hour ultimatum, to which the Pakistan Army responded kinetically. After an intense firefight, all militants were killed; but 21 hostages and security officials also died. Or so we were made to believe.

It was one of those militant incidents where information and disinformation compete with each other for eyeballs. I was less concerned about the details of the execution of the hijacking and the counteraction, because that will take time to emerge. Till today, no one can say with any degree of certainty what the final outcome and sequence of events were. A strong disinformation campaign was waged from the portals of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations in an attempt to ensure that the truth remained grey and the Pakistan Army did not lose face.

However, the incident has only succeeded in drawing international attention towards the Balochistan issue where a struggle for justice has been going on for long, but relatively less noticed by the international community. The Baloch issue has been festering since 1948. It is centred on the grievances of the ethnic Baloch people over their political marginalisation, lack of autonomy, and the exploitation of natural resources in the province by Punjabi-dominated central government. These tensions have fuelled a decades-long separatist insurgency, with groups like the BLA demanding independence or greater self-rule, often clashing with the Pak Army. The region's strategic importance, especially due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Gwadar Port, has helped intensify this conflict.