All hostages were rescued after Pakistani security forces returned the counter-terrorism center for interrogation on Tuesday, two days after the terrorists took it over, security sources said.
Security forces have been working to clear the entire compound since launching a hostage rescue operation from Pakistani Taliban militants who seized weapons from interrogators and took them prisoner earlier Sunday.
According to sources, there were six security officers and several detainees at the center, who declined to give their names because they did not have the authority to speak to the media.
“The operation is coming to an end and there is no more resistance… The security forces have entered the territory,” said one of the security sources.
He said details about the hostages and the number of casualties would be provided after the demining operation was completed.
The military and Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Security forces have surrounded the center’s military precinct in the northwestern city of Bannu, where about 20 fighters from the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have taken refuge.
“All options failed and the terrorists refused to release innocent people, so we decided to use force,” a senior security official told Reuters earlier.
He said that minimal force would be used to ensure the safe release of the hostages.
According to an update from another security officer, an elite army commando unit, the Special Service Group (SSG), was called in to carry out the operation.
According to local residents, on Tuesday they heard explosions near the center.
Pakistani authorities on Monday launched talks to try to resolve the standoff with militants.
The TTP has little ties to the Afghan Taliban.
The group emerged to fight the Pakistani state years after the United States and its allies invaded neighboring Afghanistan to push out the Afghan Taliban and cross the border into Pakistan.
The TTP stepped up its attacks after it announced the end of a truce with the government brokered by the Afghan Taliban last month.
At least three people were killed and 23 others were injured. in a suicide attack on a police truck in western Pakistan at the end of November.
According to a provincial government spokesman, the militants demanded unhindered passage into Afghanistan.
A member of the Pakistani Taliban previously told Reuters that the group’s leadership had lost contact with its people at the compound.
“We were informed that a military operation had begun,” he said.
