Baloch separatists have repeatedly attacked the Jaffar Express in the last few years. It is commonly used by security personnel, mostly from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The last major attack on the train took place in November when a suicide bomber detonated himself at the Quetta railway station as it prepared to depart.

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

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 ahead of the first funerals, officials said.

Pakistani officials say insurgents have attacked a passenger train in a tunnel, and a separatist group claims it has taken over 100 hostages

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) -Dozens of people rescued from a train hijacked by separatist militants in southwestern Pakistan arrived on Thursday in the city of Quetta, hours after security forces killed all 33 attackers to end a day-long standoff.

Nearly 350 hostages were rescued at the end of a deadly standoff between Pakistan’s military and armed militants who hijacked a train in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, a security source told CNN Wednesday.

Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan has been the scene of a yearslong insurgency, with a surge in attacks in recent years