Pakistan police, militants clash near school, 2 dead

TANK, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police clashed with suspected Taliban militants trying to recruit schoolchildren in a northwestern town on Monday and a policeman and a militant were killed, police said.

The gunbattle erupted in Tank town in North West Frontier Province, where security analysts say the influence of Islamist militants is growing.

The fighting began after a group of militants visited a school and urged the children to give up their studies and join jihad, or holy war.

"They assembled the students in the school ground and told them jihad is more important than education," said Fareed Khan, principal of the Oxford Public School.

Police confronted the militants as they left the school and a gunfight broke out.

"A police inspector and a local militant were killed. Two Taliban have been arrested, one is seriously wounded," said a police officer.

Tank is near the South Waziristan region, a hotbed of Islamist support on the Afghan border, where hundreds of people have been killed, most recently in clashes between foreign al Qaeda-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen.