World News | Pakistan: Militants storm South Waziristan police station, flee with weapons

Islamabad [Pakistan]China News Service, December 21 (Xinhua) According to media reports, Pakistani militants stormed into a police station in Wana City, South Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the early hours of Tuesday, snatched weapons and ammunition and fled.

According to the “Dawn” report, militants armed with rocket launchers and heavy weapons forced their way into the Vannes police station. A police officer inside at the time of the attack told Dawn that about 50 militants entered the station after blowing up the front gate.

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Outnumbered by the militants, about 20 policemen resisted for a while but were later taken hostage, according to Pakistani publications.

Locals expressed dismay as the latest attacks caused panic in the area, reports said. “The public wants neither good Taliban nor bad Taliban. What they want is the rule of law in their area,” said Shakir Khan, a local elder.

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Pakistan’s counterterrorism authority in Islamabad told the country’s Senate Home Affairs Standing Committee this month that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year had bolstered the activities of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), whose bases in the war-torn country remained intact.

According to international news, TTP has made considerable progress in the peace negotiation process and increased its footprint and the scale of its activities.

Pakistani Prime Minister Sheikh Baz Sharif has pledged to tackle the problem with an “iron fist” amid a resurgence of terror in the country. He said the country would not bow to any radical group.

According to a statement carried by state-run radio, Sheikh Baz said the issue of terrorism was a “sensitive matter of national security” and called for “collective thinking” and a “national action plan” to curb the recent increase in terrorist activities in Pakistan.

The federal government will also address “external facilitation of terrorists who spread and support it in Pakistan”, he added. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)