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Pakistani security forces regained control of a counter-terrorism center in the northwestern city of Bannu, where a group of officers was being held hostage by members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Addressing a National Assembly, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said, "all the terrorists" of the TTP who had taken hostages at a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) center in Bannu were killed in an army operation. A total of 33 terrorists were killed in the operation, during which two Pakistani army commandos were killed, the Dawn report added. On Sunday, over two dozen TTP fighters at Bannu police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took guns from seven security personnel on duty and made them hostage. The militants had also fired upon the security personnel, reportedly injuring a CTD man and a soldier. TTP is allied with the Taliban, who seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August last year. The radical Islamic outfit has stepped up attacks since it announced the end of an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire with the government in November. Amid rising militancy in Pakistan, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has raised concerns about the terror activities emanating from Afghanistan and said this increase "represents a threat to neighbouring countries." "Well, there are several clear things that we believe the Taliban must deliver from the point of view of the interests of the international community and from the point of view of the interests of Afghanistan itself," the UN chief said during a press briefing in New York on Monday. "...there is another clear ask from the international community, which is for Afghanistan to stop all forms of activity of terrorist organizations that from Afghanistan represent a threat to neighbouring countries, including Pakistan," he added. Guterres made these comments in response to a question on rising terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the recent attack at a police station in Lakki Marwat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (ANI)
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