ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban on Sunday claimed to have taken a large number of hostages at a counter-terrorism center in northwestern Pakistan, while the government said a security operation against the militants— who have been surrounded— would be completed soon. 

Prisoners at a counter-terrorism center in northwestern Pakistan’s Bannu city on Saturday snatched weapons from their interrogators and helped release other inmates, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government confirmed. 

Pakistan has been fighting an insurgency by the TTP, which associates itself with Afghanistan’s Taliban. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan had been trying to broker talks between the Pakistani government and the TTP, which broke down earlier this year. 

KP government spokesperson Barrister Dr. Muhammad Saif, in a message to the media, denied militants had infiltrated the compound in the Bannu Cantonment area on Saturday. 

“Under interrogation militants snatched weapons from the interrogators and released more prisoners who have all been surrounded. The operation will be completed soon,” he said in a message to the media. 

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said prisoners at the Bannu counter-terrorism center— which included the banned outfit’s fighters as well— had taken several Pakistan Army officers and the staff at the compound hostage. 

“They [prisoners] have been trying hard since last night to provide safe passage to them [hostages] but the Pakistan Army is not letting go of its ego,” the TTP said in a statement released to the media. 

The Pakistani Taliban rejected media reports that prisoners were seeking safe passage to Afghanistan. The TTP said it had spoken to government representatives to demand the prisoners be shifted to the tribal areas of North or South Waziristan. The banned outfit said, however, that the government had not given a “positive response” in return. 

“The only way to save the army personnel and prison staff taken hostage is to accept the prisoners’ demands and let them go to North or South Waziristan,” the Pakistani Taliban warned. 

The TTP said that it had instructed its fighters not to surrender to the army in case their demands are not accepted. The militant group denied the weapons being used by the prisoners had arrived from Afghanistan, adding that the prisoners had snatched them from their interrogators. 

Meanwhile, former prime minister Imran Khan blamed the government for failing to deal with the recent incidents of militancy in the country. 

"Apart from running our economy to the ground, this Imported govt has failed to deal with the 50% increase in terrorism in Pak with incidents from Chaman to Swat to Lakki Marwat to Bannu," he wrote on Twitter.