PESHAWAR, Pakistan—Pakistan’s security forces killed 25 of 35 Islamist terrorists holed up in a counterterrorism center in the northwestern city of Bannu, while one hostage and two commandos died in the operation to retake the compound, according to the Pakistani army.
Terrorists being held at the center took control of the compound on Dec. 18 after overpowering their interrogators and taking their weapons, leading to a two-day siege and ultimately army commandoes storming the compound on Dec. 20.
“Resurgence in terrorism poses a renewed threat to our national security,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote in a tweet. “Our valiant security forces are fully capable of dealing with this threat.”
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif, speaking to local TV channel Geo News late on Dec. 20, said seven of the 35 holed-up terrorists surrendered, and another three who tried to escape were arrested. One hostage, a security official, died during the raid, he said.
Earlier on Dec. 20, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said all of the terrorists had been killed and all hostages rescued but later clarified that the army would provide the final figures and details of the operation.
The army spokesman’s comments provided the first detailed official account of the standoff, in which two security personnel were killed when the terrorists first took over the compound and two commandoes were killed in the ensuing raid.
He said one terrorist was able to first overpower his interrogator with a brick and seize his weapon. Later, other terrorists at the center broke into a storeroom where confiscated weapons had been stored.
Standoff
After talks failed to resolve a two-day standoff, army commandos stormed the center on Dec. 20. Ten soldiers, including three officers, were also wounded.Sharif described the raid as being a fierce firefight. Earlier, residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the center on Dec. 20 as helicopters hovered overhead.
The terrorists mostly belonged to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of Sunni Islamist and sectarian groups that associates itself with the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP emerged to fight the Pakistani state and enforce its own harsh brand of Islam in the years after U.S.-led allied forces intervened in neighboring Afghanistan to oust its ruling Taliban in 2001 and drove them over the border into Pakistan.
The TTP has ramped up attacks in recent weeks since announcing the end of an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire with Islamabad last month.
The TTP initially confirmed the terrorists’ demand to be given passage to Afghanistan but later said Pakistan’s former tribal regions were also safe for the terrorists to flee to.
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