Situation tense in North Waziristan tribal region

Islmabad, June 20 (UNI) Situation remained volatile today in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan region where at least 32 people were killed and 10 others wounded in an apparent missile attack yesterday.

There were conflicting accounts of the incident as officials said casualties took place as a result of blast in explosives, which were being made by suspected foreign militants while local tribesmen said that three missiles hit a religious seminary from across the border in Dattak Khel village of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

There was no confirmation available about people killed but local officials said, on the condition of anonymity, that some of them were foreigners, possibly Uzbeks.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Arshad Waheed denied reports of Pakistan army or coalition forces carrying out the attack.

Dawn newspaper quoted a source as saying, that a cluster of three houses and a tent had been hit by a missile fired from across the border. There were 45 or 46 people there at the time.

''It has been hit so badly that even those wounded might not survive,''he said.

The source denied the houses and tent serving as a seminary and said most of those killed were of Uzbek origin.

Tribal sources quoted local militants as saying that the attack had been carried out from Afghanistan.

Doctors at the agency headquarters hospital in Miramshah said no wounded persons were found from the site.

UNI