Death toll in Pakistan train hijacking rises to 31

Pakistan's military spokesman said on March 14 that the death toll in a train hijacking in the country had risen to 31, and he repeated accusations that India and Afghanistan backed the militants who carried it out.

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MACH, Pakistan — Pakistan's military spokesman said on March 14 that the death toll in a train hijacking in the country had risen to 31, and he repeated accusations that India and Afghanistan backed the militants who carried it out.

Security forces said they freed more than 340 train passengers in a two-day rescue operation that ended late on March 12, after a separatist group bombed a remote railway track in mountainous south-west Balochistan province and stormed a train with around 450 passengers on board.

The March 11 assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan, near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

An army spokesman, Major General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, told a press conference in Islamabad: "We have evidence that all the links to terrorism in Pakistan are traced back to Afghanistan."

India was the main sponsor of the insurgents, he added.