Anti-terror officer killed after militants seized compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
Taliban detainees subdued their guards at an anti-terror center in northwestern Pakistan overnight, snatched police weapons, took hostages and seized the premises.
The incident temporarily became a stalemate. Pakistani officials later showed that an anti-terrorism officer was killed when militants took control of the detention center in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region.
Police and army rushed to deploy troops and special forces to the area, but as of noon Monday, about 12 hours later, the hostage crisis was underway. According to the authorities, at least 30 Taliban fighters were involved in the seizure of power and possibly there would have been as many as 10 hostages.
This brazen action reflected the government’s inability to exert pressure on the remote region along the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate organization but are also allied with the Afghan Taliban, who gained strength in the neighboring country last year when U. S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of fleeing Afghanistan.
According to provincial government spokesman Mohammad Ali Saif, few additional major points have emerged about the incident, which began late on Sunday, when police questioned Taliban detainees.
Saif said the position was surrounded and officials were seeking to negotiate with the kidnappers. He said an operation was underway but gave no details.
Authorities have sought out several close Taliban insurgents’ affiliates in the negotiations, several security officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Officials said some foot soldiers were also among the hostages. It was feared that the army would invade the premises if negotiations failed. the Government.
Mohammad Khurasani, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, showed the incident. He said some of the hijackers were members of the Pakistani Taliban who had been detained for years in Bannu.
Khurasani said TTP fighters were not an easy passage to North or South Waziristan. These spaces were a Taliban stronghold until a wave of army offensives in recent years led to the rule being declared free of insurgents.
Since then, key TTP leaders and fighters have been hiding in neighboring Afghanistan, the militants still having relatively loose control in parts of the province.
Initially, the hijackers demanded in a video message posted on social media that they be flown to Afghanistan, but Khurasani said this request was made by mistake, as his fighters were unconscious, due to their prolonged detention, which TTP now “appreciates in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near the Afghan border.
The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces since last month, when they unilaterally ended a month-long ceasefire with the Pakistani government.
The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan for more than 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws, protection of its members detained by the government and an easing of the presence of Pakistan’s military in the country’s former tribal regions.
Also on Monday, a roadside bomb targeted a security convoy in North Waziristan, killing at least two bystanders, police said. No organization claimed responsibility for the attack.