BANNU: Tensions continued to run high in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu on Monday night, almost 24 hours after Pakistani Taliban detainees overpowered guards at a counterterrorism center and seized control of the facility.
As the standoff continued, a spokesperson for the provincial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said authorities had opened talks with the militants who are holding several hostages inside the jail.
The center is in a cantonment, or a permanent Pakistan Army military base. Civilian and military police stood guard there on Monday evening and told Arab News that the media was not allowed inside. The streets outside the base were deserted, with no people or vehicles moving as far as the eye could see.
Residents spoke of their fears over the incident and said they had little knowledge of what was going on because there had been a “blanket internet shutdown.”
“There is fear and panic in the area; people can’t even speak to one another due to the prevailing fear,” Javed Hussain, a 25-year-old medical practitioner, told Arab News.
“They’ve shut down internet services in the area … That’s rare, it hardly ever happens.”
As a result of the internet block, most residents were unaware of the exact situation, according to a 32-year-old shopkeeper who declined to give his name because he feared for his security.
“We don’t know what is happening,” he told Arab News. “Internet, which isn’t usually shut down in the area, has been suspended. There’s no coverage on TV, as well, so residents in the area know nothing about what’s going on.”
Earlier on Monday, videos posted on social media appeared to show one of the hostages being held at the facility by members of the Pakistani Taliban — also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP — appealing to authorities to reach a peaceful resolution to the standoff. He did not specify how many people were involved.
“We appeal to people that the issue be resolved peacefully and we have requested the Taliban to avoid firing or use of force,” said the man, who did not identify himself. At least two men could be seen in the video carrying guns and standing guard over a group.
In a statement on Monday, the TTP confirmed prisoners had taken “several military officers and prison staff” hostage at the counterterrorism facility in Bannu.
Mohammed Ali Saif, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said the facility was surrounded and an operation to regain control of the building would be “completed soon.” He denied suggestions that the jail had been infiltrated and said the prisoners had snatched weapons from their interrogators and released other inmates.
He told Reuters that authorities had initiated talks with the militants in an attempt to resolve the crisis and had not yet received a response from the TTP, but relatives of the militants and tribal elders in the area were involved in the efforts.
At least one counterterrorism official was killed by the militants, Saif said. Several significant TTP members were present at the center, he added. He did not say how many security personnel were being held hostage.
An intelligence officer told Reuters that there were six hostages: four members of the military and two counterterrorism officers.
The hostage crisis came a day after the TTP claimed responsibility for the killings of four policemen in the nearby district of Lakki Marwat.
And on Monday evening, the Pakistani military said a suicide bomber had targeted a security convoy in the restive North Waziristan region, killing at least two passersby and a soldier. In the southwestern town of Khuzdar in Balochistan province, officials said 13 people were injured in a blast at a busy marketplace. No one has claimed responsibility for the two attacks, both of which happened on Monday.
Authorities in Pakistan have been battling a TTP insurgency. The group is affiliated with but separate from the Afghan Taliban. The latter had been trying to broker talks between the Pakistani government and the TTP, but negotiations broke down this year when the group ended a ceasefire and vowed to resume its attacks.
In its statement on Sunday, the TTP denied media reports that the prisoners involved in the hostage crisis in Bannu were demanding safe passage to Afghanistan and said they wanted to be transferred to tribal areas in North or South Waziristan. The group added that the government had not sent 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 TTP said.
Bannu district is just outside of North Waziristan, a tribal region that borders Afghanistan and has long been a safe haven for militants.
Pakistan’s military has conducted several operations in the tribal regions since 2009, forcing militants and their leaders to flee across the border to neighboring Afghan districts, where Islamabad said they have set up training centers to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies this is true.
