(Islamabad) Thirty-three hostage takers were killed on Tuesday in the assault by Pakistani special forces to liberate the Bannu police station in the northwest of the country, which had been seized since Sunday by suspected members of the Pakistani Taliban group.
Two members of the Pakistani special forces were also killed and “10 to 15” injured during the operation launched around noon, according to the Minister of Defense.
“All the hostages have been released”, also added Khawaja Muhammad Asif, explaining that “the operation was completed successfully”.
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 said the special forces intervened when differences erupted within the Taliban over how to deal with their hostages.
The hostage takers had demanded safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the release of the hostages, at least eight police officers and military intelligence officials, Muhammad Ali Saif, spokesman for the provincial government of Afghanistan, previously explained. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“There were 33 terrorists from different groups […] imprisoned in the compound of the counter-terrorism department […]when one of them hit his guard in the head with a brick as he was going to the bathroom and snatched his gun away from him,” the same source explained.
Schools, as well as offices and roads were closed Tuesday in the area and checkpoints set up in the surrounding area.
End of the ceasefire
The TTP claimed responsibility for the taking of hostages in this territory located on the border with Afghanistan where it is most firmly rooted and claimed that two police officers had been killed.
One of their spokesperson told AFP that the special forces suffered heavy casualties and were unable to break into the police station.
Pakistani authorities had asked Afghan authorities to help free the hostages, according to a senior government official who requested anonymity
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.
At least 200 kilometers south of Bannu, in the town of Wana, at least 50 Pakistani Taliban militants also stormed a police station overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
The group locked up police and seized weapons before Border Force troops moved in to regain control. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack, saying two police officers were killed. Authorities have not officially acknowledged the attack.
Between its creation in 2007 and 2014, the TTP committed countless attacks that bloodied Pakistan.
Then weakened, it came back in force for more than a year, galvanized by the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021.