What happened
Pakistan's military said yesterday it had freed hundreds of passengers from a train hijacked by separatist militants in Balochistan province on Tuesday. Security forces killed 33 hijackers during the rescue operation, the army said, and four military personnel and 21 civilians were killed over the 30-hour standoff. About 440 people were on the Jafer Express when militants with the Baloch Liberation Army blew up the tracks and boarded the train.

Who said what
Pakistan's government is "facing a widening security crisis" in "restive" Balochistan, a large and sparsely populated province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, The Washington Post said. The BLA is the "largest of several ethnic armed groups battling the government" for greater autonomy and a "larger share in the regional wealth of mines and minerals," Reuters said. The BLA recently "stepped up their activities using new tactics to inflict high death and injury tolls and target Pakistan's military."

The BLA said earlier yesterday it had killed at least 50 passengers and would execute more unless the government agreed within 48 hours to negotiate the release of Baloch political prisoners. Shifting "targets from military to unarmed civilians" may give the BLA "instant public and media attention," security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali told The Associated Press, "but it will weaken their support base within the civilian population, which is their ultimate objective."

What next?
Those who "kill innocent Pakistanis on the roads, in trains, in buses or in markets" will be "hunted down and brought to justice," army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on television. Other security officials "have been quoted as saying some of the militants may have left the train, taking an unknown number of passengers with them into the surrounding mountainous area," the BBC said.

What happened
An Oklahoma grand jury yesterday indicted Robert Morris, the founder of a prominent Dallas-area megachurch and former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, on five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child. Morris (pictured above), 63, resigned as Gateway Church's senior pastor last summer after Oklahoma resident Cindy Clemishire said he had sexually abused her for years, starting in 1982, when she was 12. He confessed to "inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady."

Who said what
"After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child," Clemishire said in a statement. "Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable." Oklahoma's attorney general's office said the statute of limitations was "not applicable in this case because Morris was not a resident or inhabitant of Oklahoma at any time." 

Morris was "known to be politically active," The Associated Press said, serving on Trump's faith advisory council in his first term and hosting the president at Gateway's Dallas campus in 2020. Morris "steadily involved himself in state and national politics after founding Gateway in 2000" and growing it into one of the nation's largest churches, The Texas Tribune said. Gov. Greg Abbott tapped Morris in 2017 to "help support the so-called 'Bathroom Bill' that sought to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom — in part by arguing that it would allow children to be sexually abused."

What next?
Morris will be charged in Osage County District Court, and he is "expected to turn himself in there next week," The Oklahoman said. Each of the five counts carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.