After taking control of a counterterrorism facility in the northwest of the country, assailants have taken several security personnel hostages, and Pakistani authorities have begun talks to try to end the standoff.
According to reports from Monday, security forces have surrounded the highly fortified military cantonment in the Bannu district that houses the interrogation center. There, about 20 fighters from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, are hiding out.
Bannu is located just outside of North Waziristan, a district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is dominated by tribal groups. TTP fighters have long used the area as a safe haven.
Since the TTP first emerged in 2007, Pakistan has been engaged in combat against its armed rebellion. The group is fighting for the implementation of the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law in Afghanistan, the release of their members who are held by the government, and a reduction in the Pakistani military’s presence in the country’s former tribal regions.
Since the TTP withdrew from peace talks with Islamabad last month, there has been an increase in the number of attacks on security forces.
Late on Sunday, the incident in Bannu broke out, and it quickly turned into a standoff.
The assailants, according to provincial government spokesperson Mohammad Ali Saif, demanded safe passage to Afghanistan.
According to the Reuters news agency, Saif stated, “We are in negotiations with the central leaders of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan.”
He stated that the TTP had not yet responded to the authorities and that the hostage-takers’ relatives and local tribal elders were also involved in starting talks with them.
According to Reuters, the attackers who snatched the guards’ weapons during their interrogation killed at least one counterterrorism official.
Saif stated that the center had several significant TTP members present.
He did not specify the number of security personnel held hostage. However, Reuters was informed by an intelligence officer that there were six hostages, including two counterterrorism officials and four members of the military.
The situation at the facility remains tense 15 hours after it was seized, according to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper on Monday, and negotiations with the TTP attackers have not progressed.
If the negotiations failed, there were concerns that the military might storm the facility.
In a video message coursing via web-based entertainment, the prisoner takers took steps to kill the officials in the event that their protected entry was not organized.
Since 2009, when armed groups held complete control of the region, Pakistan’s military has launched a number of offensives in the tribal areas.
The operations forced the groups and their leaders to flee into Afghanistan, where Islamabad claims they established training centers to plan and carry out attacks inside Pakistan, despite Kabul’s denial of this claim.
Read: Timeline of Talks with Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan(TTP)
A TTP statement sent to Reuters stated that the attackers in charge of the interrogation facility had demanded safe passage to Afghanistan. It added that the TTP had likewise passed the interest on to Pakistani specialists, yet hadn’t heard back any “positive” reaction.
According to a statement released by the TTP, the hostage-takers had “mistakenly mentioned Afghanistan” in a video they released on Sunday and were requesting safe passage to the North or South Waziristan districts.
The prisoner circumstance came a day after the TTP guaranteed the killings of four cops in a close-by region.
A roadside bombing in North Waziristan on Monday also killed at least two people passing by, according to police. The bombing was not immediately attributed to any particular group.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who had mediated a ceasefire with the group in May of this year, have been strained as a result of TTP violence.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
