Initially on Wednesday, security sources confirmed that in an ongoing gun battle with the militants they managed to rescue 104 passengers, including women and children.

"In the gun battle, which is still going on, 16 militants have been killed and many others injured," one source said and added the clean up operation will continue until all passengers are rescued from the train.

The other militants are said to have taken some of the passengers into the mountains with the security forces pursuing them in the dark.

The source said that the passengers rescued, including 58 men, 31 women and 15 children, have been sent to Mach (a town in Kachhi district in Balochistan province of Pakistan) by another train.

"The militants have now formed small groups to try to escape in the dark, but the security forces have surrounded the tunnel and the remaining passengers will also be rescued soon," the source said.

The security forces had earlier managed to rescue 80 passengers, including 43 men, 26 women and 11 children, said Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind.

Though the authorities have not given any more details, Rind said the security forces, including military troops, had reached the rough terrain where the tunnel is located shortly after railway authorities were alerted to the train being stopped in the tunnel.

The Pakistan media reported intense firing and explosion near the tunnel, where the militants hijacked the train.

Rind said that they had dispatched rescue teams amid reports of "intense" firing at a Peshawar-bound passenger train.

The driver of the train, a police officer and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam.

One passenger described gunmen sorting through identity cards to confirm who was from outside of the province, similar to a spate of recent attacks carried out by the Baloch Liberation Army.

"They came and checked IDs and service cards and shot two soldiers in front of me and took the other four to... I don't know where," said one passenger who asked not to be named, after walking four hours to the nearest train station.

"Those who were Punjabis were taken away by the terrorists," he added.

Around 80 of the released passengers were taken to provincial capital Quetta under "tight security", said a police official who was not authorised to speak to the media.

Pakistan Railways have set up an emergency desk at the Peshawar and Quetta Railway stations as frantic relatives and friends try to get some information about their loved ones on the train.

Pakistan Railways had resumed train services to Peshawar from Quetta after a suspension of more than a month-and-a-half.

Rana Muhammad Dilawar, district police officer in the area where the train was stopped, said the security forces had surrounded the area, but there were reports that the militants had taken some women and children as hostages.

There were around four to five government officials on the train, he added.

Tariq Mahmood, a senior official of Peshawar Railway Station, said that people should not pay heed to rumors on social media and otherwise.

Earlier in November last year, a suicide bomber killed 26 people and injured 62 others at the Quetta railway station after which several services were suspended by the Railways.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan, but violence has soared in the western border regions with Afghanistan, from north to south, since the Taliban took back power in 2021.

The BLA claim the region's natural resources are being exploited by outsiders and have increased attacks targeting Pakistanis from other regions.

In February, BLA militants killed seven Punjabi travellers after they were ordered off a bus.

(With inputs from AFP and PTI)

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