Asif tells joint session: All hostages freed and captors killed as CTD siege ends

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif informed National Assembly on Tuesday that the commandos of Pakistan Special Service Group (SSG) ended Bannu police station siege, killing all terrorists of outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Addressing the joint session of parliament, he said that all TTP terrorists were killed by SSG commandos of Pakistan Army which started operation at 12:30pm and got the entire Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) compound cleared by 2:30pm on Tuesday.

He said that 10-15 of SSG commandos were injured including an officer, and two commandos embraced martyrdom.

He said that 33 terrorists were under arrest at the CTD compound and one of them had managed to snatch a gun from a CTD official after, hitting him in the head with a brick.

“The security forces, in a successful operation, got all the hostages released, detained in CTD compound in Bannu by the terrorists,” he added.

The minister lambasted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and called the incident a complete collapse of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government.

“The unfortunate aspect of this is that terrorism is again making strides in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” he said, adding: “terrorism incidents have taken places in other provinces, as well, but there is clear evidence that terrorists from across the border or locally are rising again in KP and Balochistan”.

“These 33 terrorists under arrest, regarding this situation, had a link with multiple groups, and they’d made the staff of CTD hostage. The provincial government completely failed in its responsibility regarding the CTD compound takeover,” he added.

Asif credited the military for the operation, adding that the provincial government had “no role” in it, adding “it is a failure of the provincial government there and the failure of nine years.”

“It is a total collapse of the KP government, as the provincial government has miserably failed to ensure law and order situation in the province,” he maintained.

At the outset, the joint sitting of parliament also offered Fateha for the martyred officials of security forces, who laid their lives in line of duty in defence of the country.

The house also prayed for early recovery of the injured.

Speaking on a point of order during the joint sitting, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) questioned how the terrorists from neighbouring Afghanistan intrude into Pakistan despite fencing of the border, and heavy presence of military, intelligence, police, and other paramilitary personnel at the Pak-Afghan border.

“This is a big question mark on the performance of law enforcement agencies. People have started migrating to safer places from the northern parts of erstwhile Fata…the provincial government has failed but the Centre also has some responsibility and it’s also not seen anywhere,” he lamented.

He lambasted the government for its mysterious silence over Ali Wazir, incarcerated in Karachi central jail for the last over three years in identical cases registered against him under different sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

“What’s the fault of Ali Wazir, as Rao Anwar, a notorious police official known as an encounter specialist of Sindh police; Uzair Baloch, Lyari’s former gang leader, and Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former TTP spokesman, are all free but why a lawmaker is still incarcerated,” he questioned. The PTI senators; however, boycotted the joint sitting of parliament.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022