WANA, 9 September 2004 — Eight people were killed and 11 injured yesterday in an exchange of fire between security forces and militants in the remote town of Wana near the Afghan border, officials said.

They were killed in a shootout after a land mine blast hit an army vehicle and injured three soldiers, officials said.

A military official said 11 suspected militants were also arrested after the clash in the main market of the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region. Wana is about 400 kilometers southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

The shootout erupted after the vehicle hit a land mine believed to have been planted by the militants, causing minor injuries to three soldiers, he said.

“After the blast, the miscreants opened fire on troops who then returned fire and cordoned off the area,” said the official, who asked not to be named. The identity of the militants was not immediately known, but a local intelligence official said they appeared to be Pakistani civilians.

“Six people, all local tribesmen were killed on the spot and two more died in the hospital,” an administration official in Wana said, adding that around a dozen were still in the hospital with bullet wounds. Military officials said the civilians died in firing by “miscreants”.

“The tribesmen were killed by the firing of miscreants after the land mine explosion,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told AFP.

Residents heard gunfire after the mine detonated near a bazaar in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, and later saw a number of civilian vehicles speed into a paramilitary base in the town, believed to be carrying injured people.

Sultan said three soldiers were wounded - apparently in the mine blast.

Troops had cordoned off the area after the explosion and rounded up 50 people to find out who planted the mine, he said.

An intelligence official in Wana told The Associated Press that the six dead men were tribesmen who had come to South Waziristan from neighboring North Waziristan. Many tribesmen carry weapons.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 10 tribesmen and a number of Afghan refugees also were wounded in the shootout.