Wyoming
Survivors of Pakistan's train hijacking recount the harrowing experience
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
At least 21 passengers were killed in last week’s hijacking of a train in Pakistan. A militant group claimed responsibility for blowing up the tracks and opening fire when the train was halfway through a tunnel, forcing it to halt. The train was carrying more than 400 people. Betsy Joles reports from Karachi.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE ENGINE)
BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Around 4:45 on Thursday morning, vans carrying survivors of the hijacking started pulling into the railway station in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan. Inside the station, government officials recorded the names and seat numbers of around 80 survivors of the hijacking that took place 40 hours prior. They were the last group from the train to be evacuated. Bahadur Ali, a thin 24-year-old wearing a dusty sweatshirt and gray beanie, was one of them. He described the first moments of the attack on Tuesday afternoon.
BAHADUR ALI: (Through interpreter) They said if you don’t come out, then we’ll have to come inside. Some chose to stay inside. Those who rushed out in haste were shot. Many of them were shot.
JOLES: Ali was taking the train called the Jaffar Express from Quetta to his hometown in neighboring Punjab province. The hijacking happened in a remote mountain pass along the way. It resulted in a standoff with Pakistan security forces that left 33 militants dead. Ali says he stayed on the train until he was evacuated by security forces the next day.
ALI: (Through interpreter) The situation was terrible. Everyone was worried.
JOLES: The attack was carried out by the Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA, a militant separatist group that seeks Balochistan’s independence from the rest of Pakistan. The BLA has been active since the early 2000s but has ramped up attacks in the past several years. They are now one of the most deadly insurgent groups in the region, according to Abdul Basit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
ABDUL BASIT: (Through interpreter) Anything which will be required in the tool kit of an insurgent group, they have all.
JOLES: He says increased recruitment from educated young people and tactics like suicide bombing picked up from other militant groups have made the BLA even harder for the Pakistani state to counter in this resourced-rich but impoverished part of the country.
BASIT: (Through interpreter) I would call it an inflection point in the Baloch insurgency because this is urban warfare, and this changes things.
JOLES: NPR reached out to the Pakistani military’s media wing for an interview. They declined but sent a link to comments by their Director General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on a local TV station, Dunya News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AHMED SHARIF CHAUDHRY: This incident of Jaffar Express changes the rules of the game.
JOLES: Chaudhry says the ringleaders of the hijacking were operating from Afghanistan. Pakistan has been struggling to contain the rise of militant attacks in its border regions. On Friday, Chaudhry also accused India of sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan. Both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Indian government denied these accusations.
SAMMI DEEN BALOCH: In Balochistan, the state has been failed to stop the Baloch separatists. And in the end, it is the local on-ground people who will pay the price.
JOLES: This is activist Sammi Deen Baloch. She says she fears this attack will lead to more heavy-handed tactics by Pakistan’s powerful military. She’s worried about extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: On Friday, friends and family members gathered in the courtyard of a home in Quetta to pray. They were mourning the loss of Shamroz Khan, a 36-year-old constable in the Pakistan Railways Police who was killed during the hijacking. Standing outside the house was Khan’s colleague, Muhammed Riaz (ph).
MUHAMMED RIAZ: (Through interpreter) We are in grief now, and this grief will last throughout our lives.
JOLES: Survivors who were with Khan says he was shot in the throat when he stood up to fetch water for fellow passengers. Riaz says his friend was that kind of person.
RIAZ: (Through interpreter) Naturally, he got up to serve. He really believed in serving people.
JOLES: For now, Riaz and other railway police officials in Quetta won’t be returning to work because train services from there are suspended.
With Sadullah Akhtar in Quetta, for NPR News, I’m Betsy Joles in Karachi, Pakistan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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