MIRAMSHAH / PESHAWAR: Ten suspected terrorists were killed during a search operation in Mirali town of North Waziristan on Thursday after a fierce overnight clash between security personnel and militants had left 28 people, including two women, dead and several others injured.

According to security officials, 24 militants were killed in retaliatory action following an attack on Wednesday and most of the killed were Uzbeks.

However, local people rejected the claim.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Taliban leader who had signed a peace agreement with the government in 2006, asked his followers to defend themselves in case the army launched an offensive.

A statement issued by the ISPR, the military`s public relations wing, said 10 terrorists were killed during a search operation launched by security forces after receiving an intelligence report that they were rigging vehicles with improvised explosive devices at a hideout in Mirali. The terrorists killed on Thursday also included Uzbeks, the statement said.

Residents said clashes had taken place in the volatile area hours before a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden mini-truck into a mosque at the Khajori security post on the BannuMiramshah road on Wednesday evening.

Denying media reports that five soldiers had been killed and 34 injured in the explosion, security officials told Dawn in Peshawar that one soldier and a civilian contractor of the Frontier Works Organisation had died and 11 troops had been injured.`Only one soldier, Tahir Rashid, was killed in the attack on the mosque,` an official said. He said the injured soldiers had been taken to Peshawar and five of them were in critical condition.

Details about the incidents were vague because the local media have no access to the troubled town and Waziristan has been under curfew for the past three days.

Local people said in the evening that there was a tense pause in fighting in Mirali, Miramshah and other areas of North Waziristan.

Security officials said 24 militants were killed in an exchange of fire when they ambushed an army convoy sent to rescue the soldiers injured in the suicide attack.

The militants ambushed the convoy between Khajori and Mirali. Security personnel returned fire and encircled fleeing terrorists.

The officials said all those killed in the clash were terrorists and three security personnel had been injured.

However, local people said 28 people, two women among them, were killed when security personnel encircled two hotels after the bomb attack and started indiscriminate firing.

Maulvi Gul Abbas of Mirali said 26 truck drivers, cleaners and labourers staying in the Dawlat Khan and Honeymoon hotels because of the curfew had been killed. Several loaded trucks were set on fire. According to reports, two women in villages adjoining the town were killed by artillery shells fired by the security forces. Several families of the area had shifted to safe places.

MNA Nazir Khan of North Waziristan discussed the situation with military officers at the Peshawar Corps Headquarters and urged them to immediately lift the curfew.

`Local people retrieved the bodies of 23 truckers and labourers from the hotels and the security forces have stopped firing,` he said.

He said the officers had assured him that the curfew would be lifted on Friday.

The MNA also said that security personnel had left Mirali town.

He said all the dead were civilians belonging to Bannu, Lakki Marwat and adjoining areas. He said heavy firing had continued in the town throughout the day and the number of casualties could increase while currently there are conflicting reports in this regard.

According to AFP, helicopters attacked compounds in the morning and troops fired mortars at intervals throughout the day at suspected mil-itant hideouts.

A local resident said the security forces also demolished a few compounds in Mirali they suspected were used by militants.

He added that the landline telephone service had been suspended in the area.

`Pakistani security forces raided two hotels in the area close to the site of the suicide bombing and intense gun battles left six suspected militants dead and 12 others wounded,` a local security official said. He also said that shells fired by the security forces hit a house in Moski village and killed a woman and her two daughters.