LAST HOUR 7:30 am | 33 of the hostage takers were killed.
Pakistani special forces on Tuesday ended the hostage-taking by Pakistani Taliban of a police station in Bannu in the northwest of the country, reporting deaths but without specifying the number.
“The operation was completed successfully,” Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told a news conference in the capital Islamabad, adding that some hostages had “lost their lives.”
On Sunday, more than 30 members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, arrested on suspicion of terrorism, seized weapons from officers interrogating them at Bannu police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, north- western Pakistan.
The minister clarified on Tuesday that special forces intervened when differences erupted between alleged TTP members over how to deal with the hostages.
The hostage takers had demanded safe passage to Afghanistan in return for the release of the hostages, at least eight police officers and military intelligence officials, provincial government spokesman Muhammad Ali Saif said earlier. of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Schools, as well as offices and roads were closed Tuesday in the area and checkpoints set up in the surrounding area.
The TTP has claimed responsibility for the taking of hostages in this territory located on the border with Afghanistan where it is most firmly rooted.
The TTP, distinct from the Afghan Taliban but driven by the same ideology, ended a fragile ceasefire with Islamabad on November 28 and promised to carry out attacks throughout Pakistan.
