Pakistan’s neglected southwestern province of Balochistan has been the scene of a yearslong insurgency, with a dramatic uptick in attacks in recent years underscoring the struggles the government in Islamabad faces in dealing with myriad security threats.
However, the hijacking of a passenger train on Tuesday was the first time the outlawed Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, carried out such a large-scale operation, taking hundreds of people aboard the train hostage and battling Pakistani security forces to a standoff on Wednesday.
