July 26, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 10, 1428

PESHAWAR, July 25: All bazaars in Miramshah town remained closed, while security forces blocked the main road to the North Waziristan Agency on Wednesday, as fear of an imminent military operation loomed large over the troubled region. Telephone lines also remained dead in some parts of the agency.

While the people continued their movement using unfrequented routes as no road traffic was allowed, tension mounted in the region following the failure of the talks between the government and militants.

Sources said that security forces clashed with militants in the Eidak area following which the main road between Bannu and Miramshah was blocked for traffic at the Eisha check post.

A resident of the Jangelkhel area, where an armed clash took place between the forces and militants on Tuesday night, said that two boys and a girl were wounded when the house of a tribesman, Noor Ishaq, came in the line of fire. The wounded were shifted to a hospital in Miramshah.

He told Dawn by phone from Eidak that heavy exchange of fire between security forces and militants started about 10.30 pm on Tuesday night and continued till Wednesday dawn. He said that shells hit several houses in the area.

Reports said that militants continued their subversive activities in other parts of the agency. The science block of a government school building was blown up in the Mirali area on Tuesday night, while some unidentified people took away official records from the election commission’s office in Miramshah.