PESHAWAR, , May 16 (AFP) - Pakistan's military today pressed its offensive against Taliban militants in the northwest of the country after tens of thousands more people fled the conflict zone.
Hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians have been trying to get to safety from the Swat valley, where the army launched a new offensive late last month, in what is emerging as a grave humanitarian crisis. “By Friday evening, 987,140 people were registered as displaced since May 2,” UN refugee agency spokeswoman Ariane Rummery told AFP.
She said the displaced people had been registered in 23 camps set up in different parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
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| Injured Pakistani civilians from the troubled Swat valley, receiving treatment in a hospital. AFP |
“There may be thousands of more, who fled Swat but have not been registered as yet,” Rummery said.
Exhausted and living under canvas in camps that offer little protection from the searing heat of the Pakistani plains, far from the cool mountain air to which they are accustomed, the displaced lashed out at the army offensive.
“The government should give us peace. We have no need for tents, for food or for money. Give us peace and give us our homes,” said Hayat Ullah, a grandfather who came with his wife, daughters and children from Mingora.
“We grow beards, we believe in purdah for women and stopping singing and music -- that's good because that's our way of Islam.
“We didn't come here because of the Taliban, we came here after the shelling and bombardment of the government,” he said in the government-run camp Jalala in Mardan district where children queued for tea and ice for their parents.
An official from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which this week was able to enter one of the hardest hit districts, said there was no longer any electricity or fresh drinking water.
More than 940 Taliban militants and 45 soldiers have been killed so far in the ongoing military operation launched since April 26 in Lower Dir, Buner and Swat districts.
However, there is no independent confirmation of the figures and no word on civilian casualties.
“Helicopter gunships and fighter jets shelled militant hideouts in Peochar, Shamozai and Khwaza Khela areas of Swat, which started Friday night and continued until Saturday morning,” a military official said on condition of anonymity.
The military said up to 15,000 troops were taking on about 4,000 well-armed fighters in Swat, where Islamabad has ordered a battle to “eliminate” Islamist militants, branded by Washington the greatest terror threat to the West.
The army says its troops have encircled Mingora, which is held by Islamist fighters who have waged a brutal insurgency to extend their control and enforce an uncompromising version of Islamic sharia law.
The advance of the militants closer to the capital Islamabad has raised concern in the United States, which has put Pakistan at the centre of its efforts to contain another Islamist insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan. |
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