Balochistan: On Pakistan Army’s Jaffar Express Rescue Operation – OpEd

On March 11 Baloch fighters surprised the Pakistan army by not only launching a massive operation in which Jaffar Express was hijacked in broad daylight and its 440 passengers held hostage for 36 hours in the Bolan Pass area of Balochistan. In spite of this, Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan army stoutly maintained that this audacious and extremely well coordinated action by Balochistan Liberation Army [BLA] fighters wasn’t an intelligence failure!

However, the most unbelievable thing about this operation is the Pakistan army’s claim that no hostage was harmed in the final rescue phase, which if true, buttresses DGISPR’s claim that “This was the most successful hostage rescue operation in global history, considering the terrain and presence of suicide bombers in the area.”

In his media briefing, DGISPR had highlighted that passengers were segregated into various groups and Baloch suicide bombers had placed themselves within these groups to dissuade any rescue attempts. He also revealed that the suicide bombers were first killed by Special Services Group commandos “from a distance” and thereafter clearing the train, bogie by bogie, “killing any terrorists they encountered.”

DGISPR claimed that while 33 Baloch fighters had been killed in the hostage rescue operation, security forces had suffered no fatalities. Emphasising that “Despite their intentions, they (the terrorists) were unable to kill even a single hostage,” he clarified that the 21 passengers and four FC personnel who died in this incident had been killed by BLA fighters before the hostage rescue operation commenced.

During the spectacular 1979 Entebbe raid which is considered the world’s most successful rescue operation, the commanding officer of the Israeli commandos force and four hostages were killed. With the Pakistani security forces and hostages suffering no fatalities, the Jaffar Express rescue operation definitely outdoes the Entebbe action hands down!

However, DGISPR’s claim that this action is “the most successful hostage rescue operation in global history” isn’t at all convincing. While he did try by highlighting the humongous challenges imposed on the security forces undertaking the hostage rescue operation due to “the terrain and presence of suicide bombers in the area,” but the narrative conjured by ISPR’s team of spin-doctors conveyed just the opposite message.

Some basic questions that DGISPR’s narrative has raised:

ï Time is of essence in any hostage rescue mission and hence why did the elite SSG commandos who maintain a high degree of operational readiness and are trained for insertion into the combat area by air for rapid deployment take nearly 24 hours to reach the incident site?

ï If the suicide bombers were [as per DGISPR’s own statement] using passengers as ‘human shields’, how did SSG snipers successfully manage to shoot them down “from a distance” without causing any collateral damage?

ï According to DGISPR, “The BLA militants were positioned in multiple groups, including on the surrounding hills,” and this gave them a definite tactical advantage. Yet, how come the BLA fighters could not even inflict a single fatal casualty on the security forces involved in hostage rescue operations?

ï Once the suicide bombers who had placed themselves within hostage groups realise that they were being targeted, why didn’t they trigger explosives strapped to their bodies and cause casualties to the passengers?

ï Isn’t DGISPR’s claim that “Despite their intentions, they [BLA fighters] were unable to kill even a single hostage,” go against the instinctive behaviour of suicide bombers who are determined to blow themselves up and is hence an extraordinary and inexplicable phenomenon?

While there’s no doubt that the Jaffar Express passenger rescue operation was challenging and perilous, rather than projecting this as a fierce clash between two formidable foes, DGISPR has made this action look more like a typical duck-shoot on a clear sunny day as the sequence of events indicate which can be summarised thus:

ï BLA fighters take control of the terrain in an inaccessible area. They make passengers alight and segregate them into different groups.

ï By evening, people of Baloch ethnicity are released.

ï Suicide bombers place themselves within each remaining group of hostages using them as ‘human shields’ to thwart any rescue attempt by security forces.

ï SSG commandos arrive by midday next day and after reviewing the ground situation decide to first take out the suicide bombers and achieve this by using snipers without injuring any hostage or giving suicide bombers a chance to activate their explosive vests.

ï Thereafter, the security forces clear the train, bogie-by-bogie, killing any terrorist they encounter without suffering any fatalities or injuries.

ï The operation ends on a happy note after 36 hours with the successful rescue of all hostages and elimination of 33 BLA fighters.

A week later, Pakistani security forces dumped 23 dead bodies in Quetta Civil Hospital, and Dawn quoted a government official saying that these “were the unidentified bodies of militants who were killed in the military operation following the attack on the Jaffar Express.” But for unfathomable reasons, and, the Pakistan army displaying brazen insensitivity did not allow the family members of missing Baloch men access to the morgue.

Identifying slain militants is an important aspect of counter-terror operations and security forces all over the world seek public assistance for the same. So, denying locals the opportunity to identify the dead is indeed inexplicable. Things became even murkier when eyewitnesses reported that 13 unidentified bodies had been secretly buried by the police in Quetta’s Kasi graveyard late on Tuesday night.

Could Pakistan army’s hesitation to allow locals to identify the so-called deceased BLA fighters killed in the Jaffar Express rescue operations be due to fear of exposing its falsehood. While DGISPR has claimed that 33 BLA terrorists were killed and their dead bodies killed, BLA has asserted that it has lost only 13 fighters and posted their photos alongwith names on social media.

There is thus a discrepancy of 20 fatalities and it’s here that the past track record of ISPR and BLA holds the key. The Pakistan army’s media wing has a history of peddling fake news-in 1999, it tried to fool the world by maintaining till the end that the intruders in Kargil were mujahideen and not Pakistan army regulars and two decades later, in order to buttress its claim of having shot down two Indian Air Force fighter jets, the then DGISPR told a blatant lie claiming that the Pakistan army had a second pilot in its custody who was convalescing in a combined military hospital.

On the other hand, while BLA does exaggerate losses inflicted on Pakistani forces, it has yet not been found to be indulging in propagating white lies.

Readers would recall that in 2022, BLA responded to ISPR’s of the army having eliminated nine BLA cadres after a serving Lt Col was abducted and killed by its fighters, stating, “BLA takes utmost pride in its struggle and the martyrdom of our comrades during this struggle… [and] announces all martyrdoms of its members with great glory and honour. If any of our freedom fighters had lost their lives in this successful operation, we would have taken pride in making it public and paying rich tributes to them.”

So, as far as the real truth about the Jaffar Express rescue operation is concerned, the jury is still out.