ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan security forces retrieved a police station that was captured, the defense minister said, killing all 33 hostage-takers of Pakistani Taliban.
This came days after the Pakistan Taliban (also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan – TTP) seized the center in the remote north-western Bannu district on Sunday, where several people, including security officials, were inside at the time.
Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said all hostages were freed, two special forces killed, and 10 to 15 members of the military injured, as BBC wrote.
Explaining events, Asif told parliament that the 33 militants had links to different groups, and were being held in a counter-terrorism compound.
Asif told parliament that “all the terrorists” had been killed, and all the hostages freed – without specifying what the latter number was, the report added. ss
He blamed a “total collapse” of the provincial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for the deadly incident.
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Last month, the Pakistani Taliban announced they no longer abide by a month-long ceasefire with the government, urging fighters to resume attacks in retaliation towards a continuous military campaigns.
Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told Reuters in a text message that its leadership had decided to end the ceasefire with Pakistan, as India Express reported.
The group claimed responsibility for Wednesday attack that targeted a police truck in Quetta, Pakistan, killing at least three people and further 23 injured.
Senior police official Azhar Mehesar told AFP the blast targeted a police team preparing to escort polio vaccinators in the city of Quetta, where at least a policeman, a woman and a child were killed.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban – is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border.
Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan).
