Nearly 2.4 million displaced in Pakistan

25 May 2009, 8:38 pm   -   Source: AFP
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A displaced girl clutches bread in a refugee camp in Pakistan's Swat Valley (AP)

A displaced girl clutches bread in a refugee camp in Pakistan's Swat Valley (AP)

Pakistan's military says an offensive in Swat Valley may last up to 10 days, as those displaced by the conflict rose to nearly 2.4 million.

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Pakistan's military says it could take up to 10 days to wrest back control of Swat's Taliban-held capital, as the number of people feeling the northwest offensive rose to nearly 2.4 million.

Ground forces are fighting street-by-street with Taliban fighters in Mingora, the business and administrative hub of the scenic Swat region which has been ripped apart by a two-year insurgency by the Islamist extremists.

Security forces launched their assault across three districts in late April, as Taliban fighters bent on expanding their control and introducing a harsh brand of Islamic law advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad.

Offence 'may last 10 days'

"It may take seven to 10 days to clear Mingora town of militants," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

"The operation may be a little slow to avoid civilian casualties, damage and destruction to property. There are also improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in Mingora, and we have to clear these IEDs as well."

The onslaught across the northwest has sent panicked civilians fleeing their homes, and the UN refugee agency and government officials said Monday that authorities had registered about 2.38 million displaced people since May 2.

Militants killed

Security forces have said a number of key squares and intersections in Mingora are now under their control, as the offensive enters a crucial phase.

A military official who did not want to be named said that six militants died overnight in Kabal town about 20 kilometres west of Mingora.

"They were trying to plant a bomb outside a mosque but it exploded on them," the official told AFP. "The dead bodies of six armed militants are still lying near the mosque."

He said Pakistan's security forces were still battling on the streets of Mingora, which has seen Taliban fighters armed with guns and rocket launchers patrol the streets in the past weeks, according to residents who fled.

'Pockets of resistance'

"Militants are retreating from different fronts but we are still receiving fire from some pockets of resistance," the official said.

Helicopter gunships also shelled militant hideouts in Peochar and Malam Jabba -- mountainous areas northwest of Mingora which are Taliban bastions.

Reporters and humanitarian workers have mostly been barred from visiting the conflict zone and telephone land lines and mobile signals appear to have been cut in Mingora, making the military's claims impossible to verify.

Death toll unclear

Pakistan says more than 1,100 militants and 66 soldiers have died in the offensive launched in the districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8, but those tolls cannot be confirmed independently.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters that the government was doing all it could to care for the massive number of uprooted people.

"Around 2.3 million people have been registered as displaced persons so far but this figure is not final," he said, adding that nearly 200,000 are living in camps while the rest are huddled with relatives in cramped homes.

The newly-displaced join more than 550,000 people who fled similar battles last year and rights groups have warned that it is Pakistan's biggest movement of people since partition from India in 1947.

Civilians 'isolated'

Fears are also growing for between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians that the military say are still trapped with scant food and medical supplies in Mingora, which usually has a population of 300,000.

Security forces say 15,000 troops are now fighting 1,500 to 2,000 "hardcore militants" in Swat.

The extremists' advance came despite a February deal with a pro-Taliban cleric which put three million people in the northwest under sharia law in a bid to end the two-year Taliban insurgency -- a deal which now lies in tatters.

 

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