At least 25 bodies retrieved from Pakistan train siege

ISLAMABAD

The bodies of at least 25 people, including 21 hostages, killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in Pakistan were retrieved from the site on Thursday, officials said.

Security forces said they freed more than 340 train passengers in a two-day rescue operation that ended late on March 12 after a separatist group bombed a remote railway track in mountainous southwest Balochistan and stormed a train with around 450 passengers on board.

The assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Death tolls have varied, with the military saying in an official statement that "21 innocent hostages" were killed by the militants as well as four soldiers in the rescue operation.

A railway official in Balochistan said the bodies of 25 people were transported by train away from the hostage site to the nearby town of Mach yesterday morning.

"Deceased were identified as 19 military passengers, one police and one railway official, while four bodies are yet to be identified," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Passengers who escaped from the siege said after walking for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety that they saw people being shot dead by militants.