Authorities in Pakistan continued Monday to negotiate a resolution to the overnight hostage crisis at a counterterrorism police detention center where dozens of suspected militant inmates have taken multiple officers hostage.
The inmates are demanding safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the hostages’ lives.
The ongoing siege in Bannu, a garrison city in the northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa border province, has reportedly left at least two policemen dead and several others injured, including an army officer.
The casualties occurred during clashes with the hostage takers when security forces attempted to retake control of the facilities, shortly after the siege had begun.
A senior provincial advisor, Muhammad Ali Saif, confirmed the death of one security official without elaborating. He shared no further details.
Authorities said a group of detainees were being interrogated in connection with incidents of terrorism when some of them managed to grab weapons from security guards before freeing an unspecified number of “high-profile terrorists” from another detention cell.
A provincial government statement later confirmed the events, saying “under interrogation militants snatched weapons from the interrogators and released more prisoners who have all been surrounded” by security forces.
A social media video shows several armed men with an injured person, believed to be a security guard. One of the men, with his face covered and holding an assault rifle, demanded the Pakistani government urgently arrange for all his 35 associates “safe air passage” to Afghanistan. Otherwise, he threatened to kill all the hostages.
The authenticity of the video could not be ascertained from independent sources nor have authorities commented on it.
The city administration late on Sunday suspended access to internet and mobile phone services across Bannu, blocking roads leading to the prison compound and ordering residents to stay indoors.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed militant alliance also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the siege Monday, saying its fighters were among the detainees and asking the government to transfer them to areas near the Afghan border, where the group has its hideouts. (VOA)