WANA, Aug 13: Volunteers of a tribal peace committee backed by paramilitary forces chased away militants following an exchange of heavy fire on Monday morning, an official said.

A military spokesman claimed that three militants were killed in the fire, but the official refused to confirm the report, saying no body had been found at the site.

The clash took place at around 2am when a group of about 30 militants tried to attack a security checkpoint at Dargai in the Tanai area, near the regional headquarters of Wana.

The Wazir tribe volunteers came to the rescue of paramilitary forces and fired on the militants from a nearby area dominated by the Mehsud tribe.

The incident, however, prompted the Wazir tribesmen to carry out a search for vehicles emerging from the Mehsud territory.

Angry Mehsud tribesmen, the official said, blocked the Wana-Jandola road near Madijan for some time. Sources said the road was reopened after the intervention of militant commander Baitullah Mehsud.

Some circles believe that the recent surge in attacks in South Waziristan and the abduction of 15 militiamen from the Frontier Corps’ South Waziristan Scouts were the handiwork of some militant groups associated with top militant commander Abdullah Mehsud, who was killed in a raid on his hideout in Zhob, Balochistan, last month.

“There appears to be some internal strife among various militant groups and it seems that they are not on the same page with Baitullah Mehsud,” a source said.

He said that a jirga was trying to negotiate the release of the 15 militiamen kidnapped last week, but the groups involved in the abduction were refusing to acknowledge their involvement in the incident.