Jaffar Express operation complete, hostages rescued: DG ISPR

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Wednesday that the clearance operation, launched after the Jaffar Express train was attacked and hijacked, has been completed with all terrorists present killed.

Speaking to a private news channel, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, confirmed the successful completion of the complex operation, stating that units from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Special Services Group (SSG), the army, and Frontier Corps (FC) participated in the mission.

He declared that all 33 terrorists had been eliminated and emphasized that no passengers were harmed during the clearance operation. However, he noted that prior to the operation, the terrorists had killed 21 passengers.

Providing details of the incident, Lt. Gen. Chaudhry explained that on March 11, the terrorists targeted a railway track in Bolan, halted the Jaffar Express, and took its passengers hostage. He revealed that the militants used the hostages, including women and children, as human shields. Additionally, he stated that the attackers had positioned suicide bombers among the hostages, who were subsequently neutralized by security forces snipers.

He further disclosed that the terrorists had been in communication with their facilitators and mastermind in Afghanistan through satellite phones during the clearance operation. He reported that around 100 passengers were safely rescued the previous evening, with more being recovered today.

He assured that all terrorists present at the site had been killed. However, security personnel were conducting a thorough clearance operation of the train and surrounding area, with bomb disposal squads following standard procedures. Moreover, hostages who had fled to nearby areas during the operation were being located and brought back.

Describing the final clearance operation, Lt. Gen. Chaudhry stated that security forces meticulously searched each train compartment and successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists. He warned that no one would be allowed to terrorize innocent Pakistanis in public spaces, whether in streets, trains, buses, or markets, under the guise of a misguided ideology.

He issued a strong statement, vowing that those responsible for such acts would be relentlessly pursued and brought to justice. He emphasized that the Jaffar Express incident had fundamentally altered the approach to dealing with such threats. Furthermore, he reiterated that these terrorists had no connection to Islam, Pakistan, or Balochistan.

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