WEB DESK
Security forces on Tuesday afternoon completed an operation at the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) police station in Bannu cantonment, claiming that they have killed all 33 terrorists who were holed up inside. During the operation, at least seven security personnel sustained injuries.
They were shifted to Bannu Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. Subsequently, a clearance operation was launched in the vicinity to trace any facilitators. Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that as many as 33 militants had stormed the building and had entrenched themselves.
He said that attempts were made to resolve the matter without bloodshed. When all attempts failed, commandos conducted a precision operation in which 33 militants were killed while seven security officials were injured. The injured were rushed to the hospital for treatment. He said that the terrorists had developed differences among them while commandos terminated them during the operation.
Precautions
Local schools were ordered shut on Tuesday out of fear of kidnappings and a hostage situation developing as the standoff at the Bannu CTD center dragged into its third day. The district’s deputy commissioner announced to close of the schools. “We fear that the Taliban could enter any school in the suburbs and take the students hostage. We are not taking any risks and that’s why we decided to close the schools for today,” said a senior government official in the district who asked not to be named.
How did it happen
Around 35 members of a splinter group of the Tehreek–i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group – separate from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline Islamist ideology – had overpowered their captors on Sunday and snatched their weapons. The men, held on suspicion of terrorism, demanded safe passage to Afghanistan in return for releasing at least eight police officers and military intelligence officials, said Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesperson for the provincial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. The station is located within a cantonment in Bannu, in the formerly self-governed tribal areas and near the border with Afghanistan. Offices and roads leading to and from have closed and checkpoints have been set up around the area. Pakistani officials have asked the government in Kabul to help with the release of the hostages, the senior government official told AFP.
The TTP said its members were behind the incident and demanded authorities provide them safe passage to border areas. Overnight on Monday, at least 50 Pakistan Taliban militants stormed another police station in Wana – also close to the Afghan border and some 200 kilometers south of Bannu – according to local government and senior police officials, both of whom asked not to be named. The group locked up police officers and seized weapons before border force troops moved in to take back control. The TTP claimed responsibility, saying two police officers were killed.
Authorities have not officially acknowledged the incident. The TTP emerged in 2007 and carried out a horrific wave of violence in Pakistan that was largely crushed after a military operation beginning in 2014. However, attacks are on the rise again since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul last year, with most targeting security forces. A shaky months-long ceasefire between the TTP and Islamabad ended last month.
