Two woman and three children of a family were killed by a stray shell amidst clashes between local Taliban militants and security forces in North Waziristan late on Tuesday that also injured four paramilitary soldiers, local officials said on Wednesday. They died when an artillery shell allegedly hit their house in Zakarkhel village near a security checkpost in Mir Ali town, east of Miranshah, locals said. The officials told Daily Times via telephone that all the deaths were reported from the house of Kashmir Khan and the children were aged between 8 and 15. Reports reaching here said two security checkposts were attacked simultaneously east and south of Miranshah and security forces retaliated with artillery fire. “The militants attacked Thall checkpost, 15 kilometres south of Miranshah, with heavy weapons and at the same time they also attacked Kajhori checkpost. Four paramilitary soldiers were injured in the two attacks and were airlifted to a Bannu hospital,” the officials said. The militants have adopted a new strategy, to attack checkposts in dark, to prompt indiscriminate fire from the security forces to cause collateral damage among the civilians in a bid to win local population’s support, the local residents said. A girls primary school in Kuza Banda, Kabal tehsil, was closed for an indefinite period after militants threatened to bomb it if teachers and girl students did not wear a burqa or a veil. Swat DCO Syed Muhammad Javed told Daily Times that the administration had issued no directive to close the school.