Following a terrorist attack on the Counter-Terrorism Department’s (CTD) compound in Bannu, talks between Pakistani officials and the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are underway in Afghanistan, confirmed Mohammad Ali Saif, spokesperson of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, on Monday. As per a foreign news agency, Pakistani authorities opened talks to try to resolve a stand-off with the TTP who were holding several security personnel hostage after seizing control of a counter-terrorism facility in the country’s northwest a day earlier. “We are in negotiations with the central leaders of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan,” said Saif. Internet services have been suspended in Bannu and the roads leading to and from the Bannu Cantonment have been blocked. Dozens of terrorists, who stormed an office of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Bannu city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Sunday, seek safe exit to Afghanistan via airway. Despite the passage of more than 17 hours, the terrorists are still present in the CTD office Bannu, while the body of the policeman, martyred in the gun battle with the outlaws has been shifted to police lines. The terrorists are demanding safe airlift to Afghanistan from the Pakistani authorities, the sources claimed. On Sunday, dozens of terrorists stormed an office of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Bannu city. The terrorists used rocket launchers and hand grenades to target the police station in Lakki Marwat. The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the incident. In a statement, a spokesperson for the militant group said that its members had taken CTD staff and security officials as hostage. He added that the militants — in a previous video statement — had demanded safe passage but “mistakenly mentioned Afghanistan”. He further said the group had spoken to government officials overnight and asked them to “shift the prisoners” to either South or North Waziristan.