21 passengers killed on Pakistani train after hundreds taken hostage
Mazhar Chandio/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Twenty-one passengers were killed after a train in Pakistan was attacked and hundreds were taken hostage by the militant Balochistan Liberation Army on Tuesday, according to the Pakistani military.
Four military members conducting a rescue operation and 33 terrorists, members of the BLA, have been killed, according to the military.
The military operation has ended, according to a Pakistani military official.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official told ABC News at least 450 people were taken hostage on the train and said six Pakistani military personnel were killed.
The separatist militant group claimed it had taken 182 military and security personnel hostage on the train, according to a post on Telegram, but said they had released the majority of the civilians on board. The group claimed a higher number of casualties in the attack, saying they killed 20 Pakistani military personnel and shot down a drone.
The BLA had threatened to kill all the hostages if Pakistan’s military tries to rescue them, the official said.
The BLA blew up part of the track, forcing the train to stop, before they boarded and took control, according to the official.
The attack happened in mountainous area right before a tunnel, making a rescue very difficult, they said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and said the government would not make any concessions to “beasts who fire on innocent passengers.”
The train was trapped in a tunnel after the tracks were blown up and militants opened fire on it, reportedly injuring the driver, local authorities and police have told media.
The BLA believes the Balochistan region of Pakistan, in the country’s far west bordering Iran and Afghanistan, should be allowed to break off from Pakistan. They are well-known for committing terror attacks in Pakistan. The BLA also attacked Jaffar Express trains in August 2013 and October 2016.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON and ROME) — Pope Francis is being admitted to hospital on Friday for “necessary tests” and to continue his ongoing bronchitis treatment, the Vatican said.
“This morning, at the end of the audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital setting [his] treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing,” the Vatican said in a statement released on Friday morning.
The Pope had some scheduled private audiences this morning, as he has most days, and will make his way to the hospital after his audiences have been received.
Just last month, Pope Francis fell and injured his arm in his residence, the Vatican said in January.
“Pope Francis suffered a bruise to his right forearm, without fractures,” the Vatican said in a statement in Italian. “The arm was immobilized as a precautionary measure.”
The pontiff, 88, was seen in a photo released by the Vatican after the incident with his arm in a soft sling. Earlier this month, Pope Francis tripped while entering the Vatican auditorium for an audience when the handle of his walking stick broke but he was able to stop himself from falling.
The pope often has been known to use a wheelchair or a cane due to bad knees and has fallen twice in the past two months.
Just two days ago during his weekly general audience, Pope Francis paused and said, “me, with my bronchitis, I cannot (read) still” “I hope that next time I can,” before an aide aide finished the reading.
The pope was diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday.
Friday’s hospitalization comes ahead of a packed schedule of events this weekend to mark the Catholic church’s jubilee year and, as a result of his medical condition, the jubilee audience for Saturday has been cancelled, the Vatican said.
“The Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture on Sunday, Feb. 16, will be presided over by His Eminence Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, while the meeting with artists, scheduled for Monday at Cinecittà, is cancelled due to the Pope’s inability to attend,” the Vatican confirmed.
President Donald Trump’s freeze of U.S. foreign humanitarian aid and shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development is having devastating consequences globally, several humanitarian nongovernmental organization leaders told ABC News.
“The United States Government provides about 70% of all funding for HIV and AIDS globally, and so pausing any of that is a big shock to the system,” said Christine Stegling, a deputy executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and an assistant secretary-general of the United Nations.
While Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week the State Department can offer waivers for some of the most critical aid efforts to continue, Stegling said there is confusion over how to implement the waivers and what programs qualify.
“Community clinics are closed because communities are not sure what the guidance is, and they’re not sure what costs can be covered, and they’re afraid that they will be asked to repay services that they have charged to U.S. government contracts,” Stegling told ABC News.
Stegling warned that if the Trump administration halts all funding to HIV and AIDS programs, more than six million people could die of AIDS-related causes by 2029.
“These are people’s lives that are really at risk here that we need to consider as we’re thinking about the future,” Stegling said.
Since the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine has been the top recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, according to USAID. Yuriy Boyechko, the founder and president of Hope for Ukraine, works with U.S.-funded organizations to provide firewood to Ukrainian civilians living on the front lines.
“Firewood is a lifeline right now for the people in Ukraine,” Boyechko told ABC News. “They don’t have electricity, they don’t have gas. They rely on firewood to keep them warm in freezing temperature[s], and they rely on their firewood to cook their meals.”
Boyechko said that unless other organizations can step in and distribute that wood, Ukrainians will be left in the freezing cold.
“It’s created a lot of distrust inside of the population inside of Ukraine because we [have] always been relying on [the] United States,” Boyechko said. “[The] United States got our back in the darkest period of time, and now, since USAID is pulling away, a lot of people [are] losing hope.”
Search for Common Ground, a global peace-building organization, receives about 40 percent of its funding from the U.S. CEO Shamil Idriss said the aid freeze has hurt their work in eastern Congo, where a war has reemerged.
“We had to freeze the mobilization in the east of the country that was intended to prevent recruitment into the rebel movement that is gaining ground there,” Idriss told ABC News. “Critically, we had to stop broadcasting on a network of radio stations in the east of the country that provide a lifeline for people. So literally, today, people are running in the wrong direction. They’re fleeing towards violence, rather than away from it.”
Idriss said his organization is making the case that its work aligns with the foreign policy priorities of the Trump administration and hopes to work with them, but the way in which the aid was immediately cut has caused concern.
“The stop work orders that we received across more than 30 programs and projects, no two were alike. Some of the information was inconsistent, ambiguous or even contradictory,” Idriss said. “Chaos has really ensued. We’re hopeful that, you know, cooler heads will prevail within the administration shortly.”
Noah Gottschalk, senior director for international advocacy at HIAS, said the Jewish refugee and immigrant aid organization has also experienced “total and complete chaos.”
“We’ve had to stop programs, for example, with survivors of violence against women in Latin America, in countries like Colombia, in countries like Ecuador, women who fled abusive partners, and the support that we provide them is often the difference between them being forced to maybe return to those abusive former partners, or becoming vulnerable to human trafficking,” Gottschalk told ABC News.
Gottschalk said he’s worried the freeze in humanitarian aid could have foreign policy implications.
“The U.S. abandoning some of the most desperate people in the world right now absolutely will create a vacuum, and I’m deeply concerned about who is going to fill that vacuum, whether it’s armed groups, whether it’s cartels, human traffickers,” Gottschalk said.
(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis’s condition remains “critical but stable,” Vatican officials said in a brief update on Tuesday.
“There have been no acute respiratory episodes and hemodynamic parameters continue to be stable. In the evening, he underwent a scheduled CT scan for radiological monitoring of the bilateral pneumonia. The prognosis remains uncertain,” the Vatican said Tuesday.
The pope resumed his work activities after receiving the Eucharist.
The pope “rested well, all night long,” sleeping without interruption, Vatican sources told ABC News. He woke up on Tuesday and continued his usual therapies, the sources said.
Francis, 88, has been hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 following a bout with bronchitis.
Vatican officials said Sunday he remained in critical condition. Officials said on Monday that he had shown a “slight improvement.”
The pontiff, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was diagnosed with pneumonia last Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
