Pakistani security forces killed all 33 insurgents who have been holding a train and its passengers captive since Tuesday, putting an end to an embarrassing security failure for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government also said militants had killed 21 of the hostages.
Four members of the military were killed and 17 hostages were injured in the gunbattle, and the remaining passengers — more than 400 people — have now been freed, army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a video his office released on Wednesday. Many of the militants wore suicide vests and used the passengers as human shields, according to security officials familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified speaking about sensitive information.
The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army took responsibility for the attack and said they killed 20 soldiers in the operation, according to Pakistani media.
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