Islamabad, Dec 21: Pakistan’s special forces have raided a counterterrorism center in a remote northwestern district, killing all of the 33 Pakistani Taliban fighters who earlier this week overpowered guards at the facility, seized arms and taken hostages, officials said.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters had killed two hostages before the rescue operation according to the country’s defense minister.
But it was not immediately clear how many officers had been held by the hostage-takers at the center in Bannu, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, since the brazen takeover on Sunday.
The officials declined to elaborate or provide details on the operation, which was launched after more than 40 hours of negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban failed.
On Monday, officials had said that one officer was killed when the TTP detainees, held for years at the Bannu counterterrorism center, seized the facility.
Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the parliament that two hostages were killed by the fighters and the rest had been freed.
Asif said 15 security forces were wounded in Tuesday’s operation. He said there were 33 hostage-takers and all of them were killed by the security forces in the operation.
Earlier, the Taliban had claimed they were holding at least eight security personnel and officials had said there were about 30 Taliban fighters involved and that they had demanded a safe passage to former strongholds of the group.
