ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called on political parties to forge unity to combat surging militancy in southwestern Balochistan province, a day after the military announced it had conducted a successful operation against separatists who hijacked a passenger train with over 400 people on board, rescuing hostages and killing 33 militants.
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) had bombed part of a railway track and stormed the train on Tuesday afternoon in Mushkaaf, a rugged area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan.
Security forces had killed militant suicide bombers sitting among the hostages before swiftly executing the rescue operation and securing the Quetta-Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express on Wednesday night, the military said, adding that 21 hostages had been killed in the episode.
Sharif chaired a high-level meeting in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta on Thursday to review the security situation in the province, with senior officials including Chief Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti in attendance.
“If there ever was a need for something more than before, it is national unity and national alliance,” Sharif told participants of the meeting in a televised address.
“We will keep on doing our politics and keep on saying what we want to say but on this one issue, that we must save this country from these khawarij, this trial, this terrorism, we must become united,” he added.
The prime minister said his government would “soon” convene a meeting to discuss the Balochistan crisis. He called for Pakistan’s political leadership to sit with the military to discuss the challenges that the country was facing.
Sharf said Pakistan can’t prosper until the pace of development in Balochistan catches up to that of other provinces.
“Peace can’t be established in Pakistan until terrorism is completely eliminated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” he said.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest in terms of landmass, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups accusing the government of exploiting the province’s natural resources while leaving its people in poverty.
Government officials deny the allegation and say they are developing the province through multibillion-dollar projects, including those backed by China.
