Train hostage survivors in Pakistan recount 'panic' amid blasts

Paramedics carry an injured train passenger victim to a hospital in Quetta on March 13, 2025, following an operation against armed militants who ambushed the train in the remote mountainous area in the southwestern Balochistan province. [AFP]

Hostages freed from a train siege in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday said they walked for hours through mountainous terrain to reach safety, forced to leave behind relatives from whom they were separated.

Militants waging a war of independence against the Pakistani state set off explosions on the railway track in a remote area of Balochistan, forcing the train to a halt and taking more than 450 passengers hostage.