KHAR: Pakistan on Tuesday imposed a curfew in a key tribal district after deadly clashes with the Taliban amid rising violence away from the battlefield of a major army assault, officials said.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in Khar, the main town of the Bajaur district in Pakistan’s tribal belt on the Afghan border after clashes.

‘The crossfire continued for three hours. Six militants were killed in retaliatory fire,’ Adalat Khan, a local government official, told AFP.

‘Two civilians were also killed and four, including two women, wounded when a mortar shell landed inside a house,’ Khan added.

Armed with rockets and heavy weapons, Taliban militants also attacked the Bajaur headquarters of the local tribal police, he said.

‘Some 50 Taliban launched the attack. Troops retaliated, killing six militants,’ said a security official based in Khar, adding that two soldiers were wounded.

An intelligence official in the area confirmed the incident and said house to house searches had been launched after the clashes.

‘Some electricity poles, a petrol pump and three shops were also damaged,’ he added.

Khan said authorities were making an assessment of the losses and that markets, banks, schools and offices were closed.

Militants have recently stepped up attacks on security forces and government installations in Bajaur, one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts considered a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

The violence has surged since Pakistan launched a major offensive in the Taliban bastion of South Waziristan on October 17. Officials say the aim is to distract the army’s attention from South Waziristan.

The continued unrest comes despite a six-month operation in Bajaur, which the army declared a success in February.