Pakistan security forces launch operation to rescue hostages from militants

Pakistani security forces on Tuesday launched an operation to try to free hostages from Taliban militants at a highly fortified counter-terrorism interrogation centre, three sources told Reuters, adding that multiple casualties had been reported.

They added the operation was underway and the compound had yet to be fully cleared.

Six security officials and several detainees were inside the centre, said the sources who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media. Militants took over the centre on Sunday.

Security forces had surrounded the military cantonment that houses the centre in the northwestern town of Bannu, where around 20 fighters from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of Islamist and sectarian groups, were holed up.

"All options failed and the terrorists refused to free innocent people, so we decided to use force," a senior security official told Reuters on anonymity, adding that an operation was not launched earlier because of the safety of the hostages.

Minimum force

He said the minimum force would be used to ensure the hostages' safe release.

According to an update from another security official, the Pakistan army's elite commando unit, the Special Service Group (SSG), had been called in to carry out the operation.

Residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday. The military and the interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pakistani authorities on Monday opened talks to try to resolve a stand-off with the militants.

The TTP, which has stepped up attacks since it announced the end of an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire with the government last month, has long used violence in a bid to take over the country and enforce its harsh brand of Islam.

According to a provincial government spokesman, the militants were demanding safe passage to Afghanistan.

A member of the Pakistani Taliban told Reuters that the group's leadership had lost contact with their people in the compound.

"We are told that a military operation has started," he said.

- Reuters