Terror on the Tracks

A series of terror attacks, including the hijacking of the Jaffar Express by Baloch separatists, exposes Pakistan's glaring intelligence failures, worsening security crisis, and habitual scapegoating of India amid growing public distrust

- SHANTANU MUKHARJI

Acts of terror in Pakistan are galloping in leaps and bounds. Only the other day, columns in this very newspaper carried a detailed analysis of the repeated terror incidents in the country. Crucially, soon after that, on March 11, the Jaffar Express, a train ferrying 440 passengers from Quetta (Baluchistan) to Peshawar, faced an unprecedented crisis when activists from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the train and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as it was passing through a tunnel with high mountains in the backdrop.

Subsequently, the security agencies were flummoxed and at a complete loss as to how to deal with this complex, terror-linked problem. However, detachments from the Army's Frontier Corps (FC), Special Forces, and Pakistani Rangers were summoned, battling for more than two days to rescue the hostages. The perpetrators from the BLA were so determined and committed to their separatist cause that they had embarked on a suicide mission. Thirteen of them were killed by the security forces, and some members of the forces also lost their lives in the long anti-terrorist operation they had undertaken.