ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Tuesday it was only the police and the army who foiled an attempt by militants to continue siege of a counterterrorism department (CTD) facility in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after taking hostages there, adding the provincial government was nowhere part of the efforts to retake the compound. 

Militants affiliated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Sunday evening took control of the facility, where they had been detained, and took several security officials hostage. The militants demanded safe passage to Afghanistan. 

A spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said authorities tried negotiating with the militants, but the talks didn’t yield any results. Pakistani forces launched an operation Tuesday afternoon to regain control of the facility. 

Asif told reporters in Islamabad that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government officials were busy politicking in Lahore, while militants had taken control of the CTD compound in Bannu. 

“It was only the police at the CTD and Pakistan Army that intervened and foiled the attempt of [militants] to continue the siege of the compound,” the minister said on Tuesday evening. 

“This incident happened [in Bannu] but the saddest part is that the entire KP government was sitting in Zaman Park Lahore (the residence of former premier Imran Khan) and there was no authority in the province to take care of the situation.” 

Asif was referring to the gathering of leadership of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which rules the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, in Lahore, after it announced dissolution of the two provincial assemblies on December 23 to pressure the government into conducting a nationwide snap election. 

The minister said around 33 “terrorists” affiliated with different groups had been detained at the CTD facility and narrated how the compound was taken over by them. 

“One of the terrorists, on the pretext of using toilet, hit a police constable with a brick and martyred him. As a result, the 32 terrorists detained therein overtook the compound,” the defense minister said. 

Asif said he would provide details of the operation later. 

Babar Khan Swati, an adviser at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa home department, told Arab News the operation against militants had been completed. 

“The job is done,” Swati told Arab News on Tuesday. “The operation has been completed and all terrorists have been eliminated.” 

The numbers casualties would be shared with the media shortly, Swati added.