Hostages have been killed after separatist militants hijacked a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Pakistan, authorities have said.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack and said they had killed 50 people on the train that was carrying more than 400.

Government officials have not confirmed how many hostages have been killed. Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Balochistan province, said “we people have also been martyred, but we will share details later”.

More than 50 militants have been killed and the insurgent attack has now ended after a day-long stand-off, according to officials.

Security officials told the Associated Press news agency that more than 300 hostages had been rescued.

Pakistan’s junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry said 70 to 80 attackers had hijacked the train.

A Pakistani government spokesman described the attack as “an act of terrorism”.

Passengers who have been freed described how gunfire was “coming from everywhere”.

The train was hijacked on Tuesday as it entered a tunnel in Bolan, a district in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

The Jaffar Express was packed with 425 people, including women and children.

The train was on a 1,000-mile journey from Quetta to the city of Peshawar.

Militants blew up the railway tracks before firing at the train, killing the driver and trapping it inside a tunnel at Mashkaf.

Security forces exchanged gunfire with the militants who were wearing vests loaded with explosives.

Noor Muhammad, who was travelling with his wife, said: “First, they hit the engine with an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade).

“After that, gunfire started and explosions were heard, RPGs were used. God saved us. They made us get off (the train) and told us to get down or they would shoot. We got down and then they said ‘leave’.”

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Bashir Yousaf, who was with his family, said: “Everyone was crying and passengers were shouting, everyone was lying on the floor trying to save their lives.

“The sound of gunfire was coming from everywhere, then they (insurgents) told us to get down.

“After getting off we were told not to look back. I just kept walking without looking back to save my family’s lives.”

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and said security officials were “repelling” the militants, while interior minister Mohsin Naqvi called the attackers “enemies” of Pakistan.

The BLA had demanded the release of Baloch political prisoners, activists, and missing persons within 48 hours.

It had threatened to start executing the hostages if the government did not fulfil its demands.

Greenland’s centre right opposition party has won the most votes in elections that will be seen as a rejection of Donald Trump’s interference in the island’s politics.

The Demokraatit party won 30% of the vote. It favours a slow move towards independence from Denmark.

On the eve of the election, its leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen had told Sky News voters should use the election to warn the US president not to meddle in their future.

He said: “I hope it sends a clear message to him that we are not for sale.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves, not with his hope.”

Donald Trump has been actively trying to prise Greenland away from Denmark, urging its people to determine their own future and join the United States.

A few days before they went to vote he promised “billions of dollars” in investment telling them he will “make you rich”.

The intervention made the election Greenland’s most closely watched and highly charged in its history.

All its parties advocate independence but differ on how quickly it can happen.

The territory’s second opposition party Naleraq made big gains in its share of the vote. It wants a swift move to independence.

One candidate, Qupanak Olsen, told Sky News Donald Trump’s interference had helped its cause.

“It’s making us aware, we are worth more than what the Danish people have been telling us for the last 300 years, maybe we can stand on our own two feet,” she said.

The party’s relative success may give Trump and its supporters hope they can do more to encourage independence in the future.

But it’s important to stress joining the US is not a popular idea here.

Even Ms Olsen rejected any moves towards joining the US, saying Greenland would not swap 300 years of colonialism under Denmark for more of the same under the US.

There were bigger issues dominating the election for Greenlanders. Insufficient healthcare, especially for cancer treatment for instance, is a major grievance on this remote but vast island.

But for the US president this was all about his neo-imperialist ambitions, openly musing yesterday about erasing borders between the US, Canada and Greenland.

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His brazen play for Greenland and its vast largely untapped mineral wealth did not go down well among the fiercely independent islanders.

President Trump’s unashamed meddling has baffled observers. He says Greenland is vital for America’s security, and yet the US already has military bases on its territory and has been offered the possibility of building more.

Equally, US mining companies have every right to join the effort to extract its huge mineral wealth, as Chinese, European, Canadian and Australian firms have been attempting for decades.

It is however not an easy process. Greenland’s vast size, lack of roads and Arctic climate are huge challenges.

It is as reluctant to yield its mineral riches as it seems its people are to succumb to the advances of a US president.

This election shows Donald Trump will have to try harder if he wants to win the affections of Greenland’s people and Greenland’s elusive natural bounty.

As the world waits for Russia’s next move over the US-proposed ceasefire deal with Ukraine, only one man has been trusted to head up Donald Trump’s envoy to Moscow – and he’s far from the typical diplomat.

Initially named as Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy shortly after the US election, Steve Witkoff has since been involved in negotiations with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine.

His surprise trip to Moscow last month to achieve the release of US citizen Marc Fogel seemed to secure the 67-year-old as the US leader’s geopolitical dealmaker-in-chief.

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Off the back of his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Witkoff is believed to be seeing him again later this week to discuss diplomatic proposals – though the Kremlin is yet to confirm this.

He has been chosen to go to Moscow by Mr Trump over US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who on paper is the country’s top diplomat, and Keith Kellogg, who was assigned to be the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine peace talks back in January.

So who is Steve Witkoff, and how important a figure will he be as the US tries to navigate peace between Russia and Ukraine?

From New York real estate to the Oval Office

Born in the Bronx, New York State, Mr Witkoff trained as a lawyer in real estate before turning his hand to property development.

In the 1990s he created his company, the Witkoff Group, which owns a number of properties in New York, most notably the Park Lane Hotel and The Woolworth Building.

Similarly to Mr Trump, he brought his close family members into his company, including his wife, Lauren Rappoport, and their sons Zach and Alexander, who is co-chief executive.

As of 2019, the Witkoff Group owned almost 50 properties across the US and the rest of the world.

‘My dear friend President Trump’

The billionaire has known Mr Trump for decades, having first met him through a New York real estate company where the now president was a client.

Having remained close, the pair bonded over their mutual love of golf, and weredescribed by US senator Lindsey Graham as “longtime golf buddies”.

Mr Witkoff was one of those on the fifth hole with the president at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September last year, when a second apparent assassination attempt was made on his life.

But despite being regular opponents on the course, Mr Witkoff and Mr Trump are very much aligned in politics, with the businessman having donated to the Republican Party during the 2024 election.

He even spoke at the Republican National Convention back in July last year, where he said he had the “privilege” of calling Mr Trump a “true and dear friend for many years, in good times and bad times”.

Mr Witkoff also firmly backed Mr Trump’s foreign policy, saying at the inauguration parade: “We are done carrying the financial burden of nations that are unwilling to fund their own progress.

“The days of blank checks are over”.

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A critical player in Middle East negotiations

During Mr Trump’s first term in office, Mr Witkoff played a more minor role, serving as one of the president’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups – which aimed to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was over lunch with Mr Trump after his second election win that Mr Witkoff reportedly broached the idea of working on the Middle East – a region he has extensive business ties with, according to NBC.

“That stunned me because I didn’t know he was that interested in the Middle East,” Senator Graham told NBC back in January, while discussing Mr Witkoff’s appointment.

“And Trump looked at me and said: ‘Well, a million people have tried. Let’s pick a nice guy who’s a smart guy’.”

Since the beginning of the year, Mr Witkoff has proven to be a critical player in negotiations between Israel and Hamas – helping to secure January’s ceasefire deal which has so far seen the release of some of the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

One person familiar with the negotiations described Mr Witkoff to NBC as someone who is “very much engaged” with “his heart is in the right place”.

A Middle Eastern diplomat, who spoke with NBC on condition of anonymity at the time, added that the businessman was a tough negotiator but was also able to “empathise” with parents who have lost their children on both sides of the conflict, as he openly spoke about his son Andrew, who died of an OxyContin overdose in 2011 aged 22.

Growing criticism

Despite praise for Mr Witkoff’s approach to geopolitics, there is also growing criticism against him.

Shortly after his visit to Gaza back in January, he backed Mr Trump’s surprise announcement that the US wanted to “develop” the region and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Mr Trump suggested that Gaza’s two million people would not return to their territory under the plans, which has been widely criticised as amounting to ethnic cleansing.

Mr Witkoff also faces questions over his first private meeting with President Putin last month, in which he said he had developed a “friendship” with the Russian leader.

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Speaking about his relationship with Mr Putin, he said: “I spent a lot of time with Putin. Talking and developing a friendship and relationship with him…”

He claimed their conversation lasted over three hours.

However, the details of the conversation and what was discussed have never been released, with only translators present at the time.