Claim: A video shows a BLA militant arrested alive by the Pakistan Army following an operation against the armed group after it hijacked the Jaffar Express in March 2025.
Fact: The video in question appeared online as early as 6 March 2025, which predates the Jaffar Express hijacking. According to the ISPR’s statement, the Pakistan Army “successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists” and did not capture any BLA militant alive.
On 12 March 2025, X (formerly Twitter) user @Tahirmughalpml8 posted (archive) a video showing a shirtless man, with his hands behind his back, being brought out of a double-cabin vehicle by two uniformed officers and shown to a large group of individuals, including several security officials, in a barren area.
The accompanying caption, which includes the hashtag “#WeStandWithPakArmy,” reads as follows:
“جعفر ایکسپریس حملے میں ملوث بی ایل اے کا دہشتگرد مردود زندہ گرفتار ۔۔۔
[A wretched BLA terrorist, who was involved in Jaffar Express attack, has been arrested alive …]”
BLA refers to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a proscribed ethnonationalist militant organisation that hijacked the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express in the “Dhadar area of Bolan Pass” on 11 March 2025, according to the state-run Radio Pakistan.
The Jaffar Express hijacking
The nine-coach train was travelling from Quetta to Peshawar via the Punjab province and carried around 450 passengers, Quetta Railways Controller Muhammad Kashif told CNN. Its front portion was attacked first, grounding it to a halt, and its driver — who was initially reported dead — emerged alive.
The BLA demanded the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing persons it claims have been abducted, failing which it would execute the hostages.
In its statement, the Pakistan Army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said, “The terrorists, after blowing up the railway track, took control of the train and held the passengers hostage including women, children and elderly, using them as human shields.”
The Pakistan Army “successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists” who “took the lives of 21 innocent hostages” as the face-off with the BLA concluded but “4 brave security forces‘ soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat [martyrdom]”, the ISPR added.
“Intelligence reports have unequivocally confirmed that the attack was orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from Afghanistan,” the statement read.
ISPR Director-General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry was quoted in a report as saying the Pakistan Army, Air Force, Frontier Corps (FC), and the Special Services Group (SSG) were part of the operation.
Days later, however, Chaudhry updated the death toll, saying the number had risen to 31, according to Reuters. He had earlier said 354 hostages were safely rescued.
On the other hand, the BLA, which is a proscribed ethnonationalist militant organisation, claimed otherwise, saying it escaped with 214 hostages, including military personnel, and executed all of them.
There were over 150 security personnel aboard, “official sources who did not have permission to speak on the record” confirmed to The Guardian, which added that the BLA had even offered a “prisoner exchange”.
Contrary to the military’s statement, the group asserted that it had released a number of the hostages. Soch Fact Check could not independently verify either party’s claims about the number of hostages and casualties.
A passenger who managed to escape shortly after the BLA attack on the Jaffar Express told the media that the militants “separated women and asked them to leave” and “spared [the] elders”.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has accused India of being behind the hijacking in Pakistan. These comments were also echoed by the Pakistan Army later, with spokesperson Chaudhry saying “the main sponsor is eastern neighbour [India]”.
The National Assembly passed a resolution on 13 March strongly condemning the Jaffar Express hijacking and all acts of terrorism.
‘Alarming’ situation in Balochistan
The armed separatist militant group has been regularly targeting railway infrastructure; in August 2024, it blasted off a key railway bridge between Kolpur and Mach. Just a few months later, in November, a BLA-claimed suicide blast at the Quetta Railway Station killed at least 26 people and injured 62.
In its January 2025 report, Islamabad-based think tank Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) termed the situation in Balochistan “alarming”. The province experienced a sharp rise in terrorist attacks and casualties in 2024, with an 84% increase in attacks compared to the previous year, it said, adding that those carried out by the BLA and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) had shot up 119%.
The BLA is considered the biggest of the many militant groups, who, for the past few decades, have consistently claimed that Pakistan’s federal government unfairly exploits Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources. It is also committed to “Balochistan’s complete independence from Pakistan”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first reviewed the ISPR statement, which underscored that the Pakistan Army had “successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists”, indicating that none of the militants were captured alive and that the man seen in the viral video is not one of those involved in the hijacking.
We were able to trace the video back to at least four posts from 6 March 2025, over half a week prior to the Jaffar Express hijacking.
A user who uploaded one of the posts mentioned above also published another reel with the same caption, which reads as follows:
“برشور میں 4 افغان دہشتگرد عوام نے پکڑ کر سکیورٹی اداروں کے حوالے کر دیے..
[4 Afghan terrorists were captured by the public in Barshore and handed over to security agencies.]”
Barshore is a tehsil, or administrative unit, of Balochistan’s Karezat district.
While one of the reels published by this user has the same footage as the one being fact-checked, the second one features a soldier who is seen addressing a crowd. A man wearing a blue kurta shalwar and a dusty waistcoat is present in both clips, thereby confirming that both clips were filmed at the same location.
Using key phrases, we were able to find multiple news reports in English and Urdu about four Afghan terrorists arrested in Balochistan that feature the same footage, screenshots or pictures of the captive man seen in the video in the claim.
Therefore, Soch Fact Check confirms that the viral clip does not show a BLA militant “arrested” by the Pakistan Army during its operation.
Virality
The post by @Tahirmughalpml8 has been viewed over 11,300 times so far. The video also appeared here on X.
We found the clip here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here on Instagram, and here on YouTube.
Conclusion: The Pakistan Army has said it “successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists”; it did not capture any of the BLA militants alive, according to the ISPR’s statement. The video in question appeared online as early as 6 March 2025, which predates the Jaffar Express hijacking.
Background image in cover photo: Badar ul islam Majid
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