Pakistan Pounds Taliban, Swelling the Tide of Refugees طالبان کے خلاف فیصلہ کن کروائی۔۔۔ پناہ گزینوں کی تعداد میں اضافہ۔۔۔ لاکھوں افراد اپنے گھر بار

New York Times - May 9, 2009 - By DEXTER FILKINS  - 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani Army pressed a surprisingly vigorous offensive on Friday against the Taliban militants who had taken control of a broad swath of territory northwest of the capital, sending tens of thousands of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting.

Pakistanis arriving Friday at a refugee camp in Mardan, in the North-West Frontier Province, after fleeing the Buner district. NYT

The exodus — by truck, car, foot and horse cart — reached close to 200,000 people, forcing relief workers to erect new rows of tents in camps along the clotted road running south from the Swat Valley, the scene of the heaviest fighting. More trouble loomed: Relief officials said as many as 300,000 people were moving or preparing to flee.

The humanitarian crisis unfolded as the Pakistani Army moved ahead with what it described as an all-out attack on the Taliban militants inSwat, the epicenter of a power struggle over months between government forces and the militants. Army officers said they were confronting a force of about 4,000 militants, who took advantage of a peace agreement in February to seize control of much of the district and its government buildings.

A refugee camp in Mardan, Pakistan, operated by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The refugees are fleeing the battles that are now unfolding across a 50-mile arc northwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, between the army and the Taliban mi

There have been a number of indications over the past week that the Pakistani Army has finally decided to confront the militants forcefully, though previous hopes, dating back five years, have always been dashed. The uncertainties included whether the army, even if it wanted to, was competent enough to deliver a deathblow to the militants or whether defeating them would come at such a high cost to civilians that it would further erode public support.

Pakistanis in the area said the Taliban had so far held on to every neighborhood they had seized in the previous days and months. Witnesses said Friday that the insurgents remained in control of Mingora, the district capital, and many parts of the districts of Buner and Lower Dir.

Refugees in Mardan scrambled for tea rations.

At the military’s headquarters in Rawalpindi, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas made few claims of territorial progress. He said that helicopters strafed militants in Swat over the previous 24 hours, and that 140 militants and 7 Pakistani soldiers had been killed.

“They are on the run and trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by preventing their departure through coercion,” General Abbas said.

Militant resistance in neighboring Buner, just 60 miles from Islamabad, has decreased considerably, General Abbas said. He said the military had lifted a curfew in Buner to allow civilians to escape toward Mardan and other areas.

There was no way to verify General Abbas’s account; reporters and most outsiders have been blocked from the areas. The Pakistani government and the military, which has largely stood by as the Taliban insurgency has surged forward in recent months, have been under intense American pressure to take action against the militants.  Read All >>>