Pakistan’s special forces raided a police center in a remote northwestern district on Tuesday, killing all Pakistani Taliban militants who earlier this week overpowered guards at the facility, seized arms and taken hostages, officials said. The militants had killed two hostages before the rescue operation, according to the country’s defense minister.
The swift operation was successful, according to security and intelligence officials, but it was not immediately clear how many Taliban were killed — or how many officers had been held by the hostage-takers at the center in Bannu, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, since the brazen takeover on Sunday.
Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told the parliament that two hostages were killed by the militants and the rest had been freed. Asif said 15 security forces were wounded in Tuesday’s operation. He did not say exactly how many hostages were freed or how many hostage-takers were killed by the security forces. — AP
