On March 11, 2025, separatist militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the Jaffar Express, a passenger train carrying over 400 people, in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

The attackers blew up a railway track in the Bolan district, opened fire, and took hundreds hostage, plunging the nation into a 36-hour ordeal that ended with 21 passengers, four soldiers, and all 33 militants dead, according to Pakistan’s military. The operation, concluded on March 12, saw security forces rescue over 300 survivors, but the sheer scale of the attack—an audacious assault on a civilian target—has reverberated far beyond the rugged hills of Balochistan.

Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “heinous" act, vowing it would not shake Pakistan’s resolve for peace, yet the incident lays bare a stark reality: the state’s narrative about its internal security and relationship with Balochistan is riddled with falsehoods.

This train attack, the first of its kind by the BLA, marks a chilling escalation in a decades-long insurgency that Pakistan has struggled to contain. For years, Islamabad has painted a picture of control, resilience, and progress in Balochistan, a resource-rich yet impoverished province that borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Official statements tout military successes, economic development, and a weakening separatist threat. But the Jaffar Express siege shatters these claims, exposing four lies at the heart of Pakistan’s internal security framework and its fraught ties with Balochistan. These lies—about territorial control, economic inclusion, military dominance, and waning insurgency—reveal a nation grappling with denial as much as dissent.

The most foundational claim of any sovereign state is its ability to govern its land and protect its citizens. Pakistan has long asserted that its security forces maintain iron-clad control over its territory, including restive regions like Balochistan. The military’s swift response to the train attack—deploying troops, air forces, and special units to neutralise the threat—might seem to bolster this narrative. Yet, the very fact that militants could orchestrate such a large-scale operation in broad daylight undermines it entirely.

The Jaffar Express was not ambushed in a remote........

© News18