TANK, March 29: The town was calm but tense on Thursday and a curfew clamped a day earlier after fierce clashes between law-enforcement agencies and militants on Tuesday night was relaxed for two hours.

Law-enforcement personnel backed by armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets and all entry points were sealed. Paramilitary forces and police have taken positions on rooftops and at sensitive points of the town adjacent to the restive South Waziristan agency.

Officials claimed that the situation was under control. Residents said that a man was knocked down by a vehicle when security forces entered the Wazirabad locality and people got nervous and panicky.

Announcements were made on loudspeakers, warning people not to violate the curfew.

Dera Ismail Khan DIG Zulfiqar Ahmad Chema told Dawn that curfew was relaxed from 1pm to 3pm after the forces had consolidated their positions. He said that army troops were assisting the civil armed forces.

Sources said that around 12 people were arrested from different localities of the town for curfew violation.

Mr Chema said that law-enforcement personnel would launch an operation to arrest culprits. He said three people, including a paramilitary soldier, had died. Intelligence sources said that between 10 and 15 militants dad been killed.

Provincial home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told Dawn from Peshawar that the army would remain in the troubled district till militants were flushed out of the area, adding that the entire district would be secured.

Mr Wazir said that a phase-wise security plan had been worked out to wipe out militancy from the southern district. “The region required a proper clean-up operation. After Tank, security forces will move to Bannu and then expand their operations to Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat,” he added.

Meanwhile, local tribesmen continued efforts to secure release of the principal of a private school and his brother who had been kidnapped by the militants on Monday.

Khursheed, younger brother of Principal Fareed Mehsud said that a jirga of the Shamen Khel tribe proceeded to South Waziristan on Thursday for talks with militants. He said that the jirga had been informed that Mr Fareed was safe and he was being interrogated at an unspecified place in the agency.