The situation in Bannu was tense on Tuesday as police and security agencies cordoned off the cantonment area from all sides.

Security forces stormed an anti-terrorism center in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday after two days of talks failed to hold hostages.

According to the report of the news agency PTI, Pakistan's army has killed 33 Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) terrorists who captured the Counter Terrorism Center (CTD) in Bannu district.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif gave this information to the Parliament.

Two commandos have also been killed in this operation.

This operation lasted for about 40 hours.

For about three days, TTP terrorists were keeping four soldiers including a Major hostage.

To resolve this issue, Pakistan had sent a team of 16 clerics to Afghanistan for talks.

The attempt was to surrender TTP terrorists with the help of Afghan Taliban, but this attempt proved successful.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has confirmed that "all terrorists" of the banned TTP who were taking hostages at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) center in Bannu were killed in an operation by the Pakistan Army.

The government tried to negotiate with the terrorists to resolve the hostage crisis, but after that failed, commandos of the Pakistani Army's Special Service Group (SSG) stormed the compound.

Asif told the National Assembly, "The operation was launched by the Special Services Group at 12:30 pm on December 20 and all the terrorists were killed."

He said that there were 33 terrorists arrested in the CTD premises.

One of them snatched the employee's gun by hitting a brick on his head there.

The Defense Minister said that two commandos were killed during the operation, while more than a dozen were injured.

Asif said that before the rescue operation, the terrorists killed two hostages.

He said that all the other hostages have been released, but he did not give the number.

Earlier, police sources had told that about 24 officers were taken hostage.

In footage aired on television on Tuesday, plumes of smoke were seen rising from the CTD premises.

The standoff began when the CTD arrested some terrorists on Sunday.

He was being interrogated at the police station.

Then one of these terrorists snatched the AK-47 rifle from the policeman on Sunday and started firing.

The said terrorist freed the other terrorists kept in the building and they took control of the premises.

They took many policemen hostage.

The TTP demanded safe passage for its terrorists to the tribal districts of South or North Waziristan.

The situation in Bannu was tense on Tuesday as police and security agencies cordoned off the cantonment area where the center is located.

Residents of the area were asked to stay indoors.

Schools and colleges were also closed.

Mobile phone services were also suspended in the area.

Attacking the government led by Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Asif said, "33 (terrorists) with affiliations to several groups were detained."

The provincial government completely failed in its responsibility with regard to the occupation of the CTD premises.

Asif credited the army for the operation, saying the provincial government had "no role" in it.

On Monday, Muhammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), said the step was taken because of the inhumane treatment of prisoners at the CTD police station by security officials.

TTP, established in 2007 as a front group of several terrorist organizations, last month abrogated a ceasefire agreement with the federal government in June and ordered its militants to carry out terrorist attacks across the country.

The terrorist group, considered close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks in Pakistan, including an attack on an army headquarters in 2009, attacks on military bases and the 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad. 

In a separate incident, at least 50 militants stormed a police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late at night and injured a police constable.

The incident took place at 1 am in Wana in the tribal district of South Waziristan.

The chief police officer of the district said, "More than 50 terrorists barged into the police station and opened fire, injuring a constable."

They took away ammunition, weapons and other equipment.” One terrorist was killed in retaliatory firing.

Police said that the rest of the terrorists fled and a search operation is on to nab them.

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