KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Pakistan’s army has claimed that militant groups used “Afghan and foreign weapons” in the deadly attack on the Jaffar Express train in southwestern Balochistan.
Speaking at a press briefing in Islamabad on Friday, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the army’s media chief, alleged that the attackers maintained communication with their handler in Afghanistan and received instructions from them.
Chaudhry also accused India of being the “main sponsor of terrorism” in Balochistan and criticized Indian media for “spreading propaganda” about the incident.
“We must understand that in this terrorist incident in Balochistan, and others before, the main sponsor is your eastern neighbour (India),” he said. “Terrorists will be dealt with as they deserve, as those who drag innocent people from buses and slaughter them. We will take them on, their facilitators, their abettors, whether inside Pakistan or outside Pakistan.”
The attack happened on Tuesday afternoon when the train, traveling to Peshawar with over 400 passengers, was ambushed in a remote mountainous area.
The attackers held all passengers hostage, including women and children. While most were safely rescued during a days-long operation by Pakistani security forces, militants killed 26, according to Chaudhry.
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting security personnel on board.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has previously claimed intercepted communications provided “concrete evidence” linking the assailants to their ringleaders in Afghanistan. The Taliban, however, has dismissed these allegations as “baseless.”
Islamabad has long accused the Taliban of harboring militant groups, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), on Afghan soil, providing them with training and advanced military equipment for cross-border attacks.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s foreign ministry claimed that some of the U.S. military equipment left behind in Afghanistan was being used in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The ministry voiced support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s call to reclaim the equipment.
