Claim: Some media reports state the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the Jaffar Express between the Pehro Kunri Station and Mashkaf Station, in the Kachhi District in Balochistan; other reports claim the incident took place at or near the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel.
Fact: Geolocating the footage released by the BLA shows the attack did not take place between the Pehro Kunri Station and Mashkaf Station or even near the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel. Investigating the BLA’s footage revealed a remote area, 13 km away from the Mashkaf Tunnel.
Precisely, the location of the attacks in the video is at 29.648247968285144, 67.58215436031169, 13 kilometres northwest of the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel and well before the Pehro Kunri Station in Dhadar, in the Kachhi District in Balochistan.
Attack by the BLA
On 11 March, the separatist militant group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the passenger train Jaffar Express which was en route to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Quetta, Balochistan.
Soon after the hijacking, several local media outlets published maps that apparently show the attack took place between Pehro Kunri and Mashkaf station. In another instance, British newspaper the Independent, published a map that claims the attack happened near the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel. Other reports claim the attack occurred in the Bolan area which sounds broadly accurate when generalising a location. However, depicting an incorrect location on a map can mislead the audience.
A day later, the BLA’s media wing, Hakkal, released footage of the hijacking, which appeared on X here (archive) and was published by international media outlets, including Al Jazeera and The Guardian. While this footage circulated online and was carried by international media organisations, they did not independently verify its contents or the area shown in the footage.
The Mashkaf Railway Tunnel– where many media outlets claim the attack took place– is located near the town of Mashkaf. Upon investigation, Soch Fact Check found that the attack did not take place here, rather, it was carried out in a more remote area further away from settlements.
Shortly before this article was published, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Army’s public relations and media wing, held a press conference sharing footage that matches our findings.
Train hijacking and precarious security situation in Balochistan
Footage released by the group shows that BLA first blew up the tracks and then reportedly opened fire on the Jaffar Express, which carried approximately 440 passengers according to several news reports. The group claimed it held “214” hostages, including civilians as well as military personnel. From among these hostages, the BLA claimed it had killed 30 military personnel.
Official sources said that security forces killed 33 attackers during the rescue operations carried out to release the hostages, while another “21 civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed.” Security forces rescued 300 passengers, according to the BBC.
At present, the whereabouts of the remaining hostages remain unknown and Soch Fact Check could not independently verify the exact death toll. Still, at this point in time, it is difficult to verify the death toll on both sides, as the BLA has often exaggerated numbers and the information from security officials is also limited.
Insurgency has gripped the marginalised southwestern province of Pakistan since the 1950s. Baloch nationalists allege that neglect and exploitation of Balochistan’s natural resources by the Pakistani state have triggered the rise in insurgent movements.
Since Balochistan became the centre stage of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a multi-billion dollar project, part of China’s larger Belt and Road Initiative, the BLA has consistently attacked the security forces, Chinese workers in the country, and targeted civilians. In 2024 alone, the BLA carried out 150 of such attacks, according to Al Jazeera.
In March 2024, security forces foiled the BLA’s attack on Pakistan’s second largest naval base, PNS Siddique in Turbat, killing five insurgents. The Majeed Brigade, armed wing of the BLA which is notorious for its deployment of female suicide bombers, claimed responsibility for the Turbat attack.
The separatist group’s armed wing also attacked the Gwadar Port Authority complex, an integral part of the billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), on 20 March 2024. All eight insurgents involved were killed after a two-hour security operation.
The deadliest was the group’s complex attack in Mach, Balochistan, which began with a volley of rockets fired from the mountains on the night of 29 January 2024. The insurgents then attacked the police station, railway station and central jail in Mach, where the exchange of fire lasted for about 12 hours.
In November 2024, the group’s suicide bomber targeted Quetta Railway Station, killing 26 people.
The BLA’s most recent attack on the Jaffar Express is the first time the group has hijacked a train, signalling a sharp decline in security.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check geolocated the footage released by BLA and found that the train hijacking occurred at least 13 km northwest of Mashkaf Railway Tunnel. The exact area lies at coordinates 29.648247968285144, 67.58215436031169 on Google Maps.
Analysing the topography in the footage, the rugged area around the hijacked train and the railway tracks leading into the tunnel, pointed us to the above coordinates on Google Maps.
Comparing the satellite imagery of this area with the landscape shown in BLA’s video further helped confirm that the footage does not show the Mashkaf Tunnel or the area around it. At timestamp 0:33 in the BLA footage, a close-up shot momentarily shows a tunnel in the right corner. This is the same tunnel seen in a rare and only photo of this small area at coordinates 29.648286°, 67.581167° uploaded by “Syed Raza Khalil” on Google Earth Pro.
Photo of this small area at coordinates 29.648286°, 67.581167° uploaded by “Syed Raza Khalil”
On the left, an image of the tunnel in the BLA video matches how the tunnel appears in the satellite imagery
The foliage flanking the railway track in BLA’s footage also stands out. These trees, visible from far away, also appear in the satellite imagery of the area, confirming that BLA’s video of the attack does not show the area around or at Mashkaf Tunnel.
Two trees, in particular, appear closely side by side when the video zooms in on the train at 1:05. These trees are a strong match of the ones highlighted below in Google Maps imagery, and are distinct from other foliage, which strongly suggests the incident took place here:
For further confirmation, Thomas Bordeaux, a volunteer open-source researcher at Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project, reviewed our findings and assisted in geolocating the footage. He highlighted key features in the topography of the area from the footage and satellite imagery that confirm the location of the footage at coordinates 29.648247968285144, 67.58215436031169, shown side by side in the following visual:
After location confirmation, Soch Fact Check estimated the distance between this location and the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel using Google Maps’ “measure” feature. This allows users to draw straight lines one after the other to measure the distance. In this case, the distance between the confirmed location of the footage and the Mashkaf Railway Tunnel along the railway track is approximately 13 km or 8 miles.
This significant distance between the two points confirms that any references in the news media other than the confirmed location of the attack can mislead the audience about the accuracy of the incident.
Virality
Dawn and 92 News published a misleading map showing the location of the hijacking here and here.
Times of Karachi published the map here and shared the map on Threads here (archive) and Facebook here.
It was published by Chinese publications here, here, here, here.
Aaj Tak, a Hindi news channel, published the map here.
X users also shared inaccurate locations of the hijacking here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), here (archive).
Conclusion: The exact location of the hijacking occurred at the coordinates 29.648247968285144, 67.58215436031169, which confirms the location is not near Mashkaf Railway Tunnel or between Pehro Kunri Station in Dhadar and Mashkaf Railway Station. The attack occurred before the train could reach Pehro Kunri Station.
Cover photo was designed by Muhammad Abid, Animator & Video Editor at Soch Videos.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com