MIRAMSHAH, Dec 2: Tribal volunteers on Sunday started a house-to-house search to flush out foreign militants from Mirali tehsil of the troubled North Waziristan agency. Witnesses said that a tribal lashkar comprising more than 200 armed men started the operation from Epi village in Mirali tehsil and searched several houses and suspected sites.

However, no foreigner was captured during the operation.

The lashkar, headed by Nekum Khan, Pir Abdul Hamid Shah and Syed Hassan, announced that they would expel foreigners from Mubarek Shahi and Hukemkhel villages.

They warned that if foreigners were captured from the house of any tribesman his house would be destroyed.

The tribesmen had raised the lashkar to eliminate foreigners from the area and to curb attacks on military convoys and government installations.

Political authorities warned the tribesmen that if security forces were attacked or harmed in their jurisdiction they would be liable under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Our Correspondent from Khar adds: Security forces and militants exchanged fire in Bajaur Agency on Sunday.

Witnesses said that militants attacked a checkpost in Dadan area of the Mamond tehsil, some 16 kilometres northwest of Khar.

Paramilitary forces fired artillery shells and hit several locations in the area. No casualty was reported.