At least two Pakistani soldiers and 33 «terrorists» were killed Tuesday during the assault on a police station of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in the town of Bannu, in the province of Jiber Pakhtunkhwa (north), where dozens of detainees had rioted and taken hostages during the night of Sunday The Pakistani Defense Minister, Jauaja Asif, said that «all the terrorists» of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, were killed during the assault, Jauaja Asif, has indicated that «all the terrorists» of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, known as the Pakistani Taliban, have been killed during the assault, while he said that two soldiers have fallen «martyrs», according to the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’.
«The operation was launched on December 20 at 12.30 a.m. (local time) by the Special Services Group and all the terrorists have been killed,» he said, before stressing that the entire area has been secured. He also said that the riot started after a detainee snatched an officer’s weapon after hitting him on the head with a brick.
He also said that the event represents a «total collapse» of the authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, held by the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) of former Prime Minister Imran Jan. «Terrorism is making inroads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,» he lamented, before acknowledging that there have been «incidents» in other provinces. «However, it is clear that terrorists coming across the border or operating locally are rising again (in the aforementioned provinces),» he concluded.
The mutineers, members of TTP, had demanded safe passage to Afghanistan. The group confirmed that its members detained at the police station had rioted and taken hostages, while calling on religious leaders in Bannu to intervene to prevent further bloodshed. Throughout Monday, the government had been in contact with the group, which claimed responsibility for the incident, to try to resolve the crisis.
Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority said last week that the TTP group, known as the Pakistani Taliban, expanded its networks during peace talks with the government and added that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed it to increase its activities in the neighboring country, nearly two weeks after the armed group announced the end of a ceasefire.
In this regard, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price stressed that Washington «stands ready to assist» Pakistan in the fight against the group. «The overall context is that the Government of Pakistan is a partner when it comes to these shared challenges, including those posed by terrorist groups in Afghanistan and on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border,» he said Monday during his daily press briefing.
The Pakistani government said the TTP’s decision to break the ceasefire and resume carrying out attacks in the country should be a cause for concern among the Afghan Taliban, which had been playing a mediating role in talks between Islamabad and the armed group to try to reach a peace deal.
The TTP group, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorist interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
