Troops on Sunday shot dead two pro-Taleban militants after an attack on a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, officials said. Soldiers at the post near the town of Mir Ali district spotted two armed men and cautioned them to stop.
But the pair opened fire and were killed in a "retaliatory strike" by the troops, local administration official Fida Mohammad Khan told AFP.
"Both were local tribesmen," he added. Earlier troops recovered 18 hand grenades from a vehicle and arrested five suspected tribal militants, Khan said.