PESHAWAR, Feb 5: Police exchanged fire with a group of unidentified men who attacked the office of a non-government organisation in Bannu on Monday. Two wounded men were arrested after the encounter, police said.

The `militants’ exchanged fire with the police in Miryan, on the outskirts of Bannu city, after attacking the office of an NGO in Mohallah Bhatian.

According to police, the assailants had come from the semi-autonomous F.R Janikhel tribal region. They took away a computer and some documents from the NGO’s office, police said.

A senior official told reporters after the encounter: “The police have been put on high alert. They have been told to remain vigilant and keep their arms ready.”

Bannu, the home town of Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, is one of the districts in southern NWFP affected by the fallout from the Waziristan standoff.

An imambargah came under rocket attacks in the town on the eve of Ashura.

Muhammad Sharif Virk, a senior police official, had told Dawn recently that the administration would take action after the Ashura to curb the `growing militant activities’ in the region.