Fighting breaks out in Pakistani town; 5 killed

Tank (Pakistan), May 16: At least five people were killed and 12 wounded today in a fresh round of fighting between Pakistani security forces and Islamist militants in a restive northwestern town, officials and residents said.

The fighting erupted in the town of Tank after militants lobbed a grenade at a police station.

''I myself have counted bodies of five people who were caught in the crossfire,'' said a Reuters journalist in the town, 290 km (180 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

A local police official said 12 people, including a woman and three policemen, had been wounded in the fighting.

Tank lies at the gateway to the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan, regarded as a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The town has suffered a wave of violence in recent months as militants tried to spread their influence from the semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan to settled areas in Pakistan's northwest.

In March, militants attacked a police station and a paramilitary force base in Tank, and set ablaze several banks, after security forces foiled their bid to recruit schoolchildren for their jihad or Muslim holy war. Five people were killed in those clashes.

The authorities slapped a curfew on the town, but later relaxed it to night-time only as violence fell off.

Then on Monday, a gunbattle broke out after militants killed a paramilitary trooper and wounded four in two grenade attacks.

There are growing fears that militants are exporting the Taliban's hardline Islamic values from the tribal lands to towns and cities in the conservative north-west. The campaign of so-called ''Talibanisation'' has included attacks on music and video shops.

Reuters>