Special forces kill 33 hostage-takers in Pakistan

All 33 suspected militant prisoners who seized a Pakistan police station over the weekend were killed and their hostages freed in a clearance operation by special forces on Tuesday, the defence minister said.

The hostage takers, who were suspected of being members of various militant groups including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), overpowered their jailers and snatched weapons on Sunday.

“All the hostages have been freed,” Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament. “Ten to 15 men from the SSG (special forces) including an officer were wounded while two were martyred.”

Elite troops stormed the police station around noon when differences broke out between the hostage takers over how to handle their captives, Asif said, with witnesses reporting blasts and heavy firing.

The suspected militants were being held on suspicion of terrorism and had demanded safe passage to Afghanistan in return for releasing the hostages, who included at least eight police officers and military 
intelligence officials.

“There were 33 terrorists from different groups who had been arrested and jailed in the counter-terrorism department compound,” Asif said. “One of them hit his guard on the head with a brick while going to the toilet and snatched his weapon,” he added, explaining how the siege unfolded.

The TTP, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline Islamist ideology, emerged in Pakistan in 2007 and carried out a horrific wave of violence that was largely crushed after a military operation beginning in 2014.

Attacks are rising again since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul last year, with most targeting security forces.