Rising militancy causes fear, panic in northwest Pakistan’s Bannu region

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The deteriorating law and order situation in Pakistan and the rising militancy have caused fear and panic among the people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Bannu region.

The residents are vexed due to rising incidents of terrorism, target killing and attacks on police and other law enforcement agencies, The News International reported.

The Pakistani newspaper said routine life has come to a standstill and businesses are affected due to market closure as people prefer to stay at home before dusk in the three districts of the Bannu division.

A total of 33 terrorists were killed in the operation this week after the Pakistani army regained control of a counter-terrorism center in Bannu, where a group of officers was being held hostage by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members, the Dawn reported.

On Sunday, over two dozen TTP fighters at Bannu police station in Khyber 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.

In an editorial, Dawn said Pakistan is witnessing the rapid unraveling of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism policy, and can expect an escalating human and material cost.

Amid the recent surge in cross-border clashes with Afghanistan, Pakistani Senator Farook Naek last week called for revisiting the country’s strategy towards the Taliban regime.

During Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Naek expressed serious reservations over the attack on the Pakistani head of mission in Kabul earlier this month, Dawn reported.

“We act as spokesperson of Afghanistan in the world against the wishes of the West, but on the contrary, the Afghan government often opposes Pakistan and raises guns against us which is very unfortunate,” Naek deplored and emphasised the need to revisit the policy towards Afghanistan. The Pakistani senator was quoted as saying by Dawn.