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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 20 december 2022
Pakistani Taliban overpower guards, seize police center

By RIAZ KHAN and the hostage-takers were
MUNIR AHMED TTP members who had
Associated Press been detained for years in
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Bannu.
— Several Pakistani Taliban Khurasani said the TTP fight-
detainees overpowered ers were demanding safe
their guards at a counter- passage to North or South
terrorism center in north- Waziristan, areas that were
western Pakistan overnight, a Taliban stronghold until a
snatching police weapons, wave of military offensives
taking hostages and seizing over the past years drove
control of the facility, offi- out many of the insurgents.
cials said Monday. Since then, TTP’s top lead-
The incident erupted ers and fighters have been
late Sunday and quickly hiding in neighboring Af-
evolved into a standoff. ghanistan though the mili-
Pakistani officials later con- tants still have relatively
firmed that one counter- free reign in patches of
terrorism officer was killed the province. Initially, the
during the takeover at the hostage-takers demanded
detention center in Bannu, Security officials stand guard on a blocked road leading to a counter-terrorism center where in a video message posted
a district in the Khyber Pak- several Pakistani Taliban detainees have taken police officers and others hostage inside the on social media that they
htunkhwa province and compound, in Bannu, a district in the Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Monday, Dec. be airlifted to Afghanistan
part of a former tribal re- 19, 2022. but Khurasani said that de-
gion. Police and the mili- Associated Press mand had been made by
tary scrambled to deploy seized power in the neigh- ernment will not accept in neighboring Afghanistan mistake, since the TTP fight-
troops and special forces boring country last year as any demands of the terror- to resolve the hostage crisis ers were not aware due to
to the area but by Monday U.S. and NATO troops were ists” who were being asked in a peaceful manner. their prolonged detention
evening, some 20 hours in the final stages of their by authorities to surrender. The officials said some sol- that the group now “enjoys
later, the hostage crisis was pullout from Afghanistan. Saif earlier said an opera- diers were also among control in some” parts of
still ongoing. According to Few other details emerged tion was underway but did the hostages. There were Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near
officials, at least 30 Taliban about the takeover, which not elaborate. concerns that the military the Afghan border.
fighters were involved in apparently happened Authorities enlisted the help could storm the facility if The Pakistani Taliban have
the takeover and there while police were interro- of several relatives of the negotiations fail. In a video stepped up attacks on
were possibly as many as 10 gating the Taliban detain- Taliban insurgents in the ne- message circulating on so- security forces since last
hostages. The brazen ac- ees, according to Moham- gotiations, several security cial media, the hostage- month, when they unilater-
tion reflected the govern- mad Ali Saif, a spokesman officials told The Associated takers threatened to kill the ally ended a monthslong
ment’s inability to exercise for the provincial govern- Press. They spoke on condi- officers if their safe passage cease-fire with the Paki-
control over the remote re- ment. tion of anonymity because was not arranged. stani government. The vio-
gion along the border with Saif said the place was sur- they were not authorized to Mohammad Khurasani, a lence has strained relations
Afghanistan. The Pakistani rounded and that officials talk to reporters. They said spokesman for the Paki- between Pakistan and
Taliban are a separate were trying to negotiate some Pakistani clerics were stani Taliban — also known Afghanistan’s Taliban rul-
group but also allied with with the hostage-takers. also in talks with the leader- as Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki- ers, who had brokered the
the Afghan Taliban, who However, he said the “gov- ship of the Pakistani Taliban stan or TTP — said some of cease-fire in May. q

Head of Nobel Prize-winning UN World Food Program to quit

ROME (AP) — The execu- gram, which won the Nobel the end of a six-year term Beasley was appointed Beasley’s term was extend-
tive director of the United Peace Prize two years ago, heading the world’s largest to the U.N. post in 2017 by ed under the Biden admin-
Nations World Food Pro- says he will step down at humanitarian organization. then-U.S. President Don- istration for an extra year.
David Beasley, a Repub- ald Trump, and was rec- In September, he said that
lican, served one term as ommended for the job by when he assumed his role
South Carolina’s gover- Nikki Haley, another former in 2017, only 80 million peo-
nor from 1995 to 1999. In a South Carolina governor. ple around the world were
statement Saturday, Beas- Haley also served as the headed toward starva-
ley said he will exit his role U.S. ambassador to the U.N. tion. But climate problems,
at the conclusion of his during the Trump adminis- the COVID-19 pandemic
term in April 2023. tration. Beasley succeeded and the war in Ukraine in-
“Serving in this capacity has Ertharin Cousin, an Ameri- creased that number to
been the greatest joy and can lawyer and former U.S. 135 million.
deepest heartache of my ambassador. The Rome-based World
life,” Beasley said. “Thanks The World Food Program Food Program was es-
to the generosity of govern- won the Nobel Peace Prize tablished in 1961 at the
ments and individuals, we in 2020 for fighting hunger behest of U.S. President
have fed so many millions and seeking to end its use Dwight Eisenhower and
of people. But the reality is as “a weapon of war and has brought aid to multiple
World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley speaks we have not been able to conflict” at a time when crises, including Ethiopia’s
during an interview with The Associated Press at the WFP feed them all and the trag- the coronavirus pandemic famine of 1984, the Asian
headquarters in Rome, Nov. 2, 2021. edy of extreme hunger in a threatened to exacerbate tsunami of 2004 and the
Associated Press
wealthy world persists.” starvation. In March 2022, Haiti earthquake of 2010.q