Pakistan’s prime minister has commended the country’s armed forces for successfully rescuing 339 passengers after a deadly train hijacking by insurgents in the southwest

Pakistani security forces stormed a train on Wednesday that had been hijacked by separatist militants, killing all 33 attackers and ending a day-long standoff involving hundreds of hostages, the military said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif went to Balochistan province Thursday to meet with 300 survivors and the troops who rescued them after a Baloch Liberation Army train attack that began Tuesday.

Mehboob Hussain was riding the train home on Tuesday when the tracks under the front car exploded. In the depths of central Pakistan's Bolan Pass, a pocket of wilderness so remote that there is no internet or mobile network coverage, the nine-coach Jaffar Express ground to a halt. Then the bullets started flying.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, blew up the railway track and fired rockets at the Jaffar Express on Tuesday.

After more than a day of fighting with separatist militants who hijacked a train carrying hundreds of passengers, Pakistan’s army said it had brought the insurgent attack to an end, but that 21 passengers and four paramilitary personnel had been killed.

Pakistan's army says it has freed more than 300 hostages from a passenger train seized by militants in Balochistan province on Tuesday. The military spokesperson said 33 militants were killed during the operation.

A military operation against militants who hijacked a train carrying hundreds of passengers in southwest Pakistan has ended, a spokesman for the army said late on Wednesday. Some 33 militants and 21 hostages were killed during the operation,

Nearly 350 hostages have been rescued at the end of a deadly standoff between Pakistan’s military and armed militants who hijacked a train in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, a security source told CNN Wednesday.