ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Firebrand Taleban commander Maulana Fazlullah has asked insurgents to stop battling Pakistani troops in the capital of northwest Swat Valley, a Taleban spokesman said yesterday.
Pakistani security forces have been pounding Taleban positions in three northwest districts since late last month, and on Saturday moved into Mingora, the business and administrative hub of the scenic Swat region.
Pakistan’s military said yesterday it was facing “stiff resistance” as it battled to wrest Swat Valley out of Taleban hands, in an offensive that has now scattered 2.38 million terrified civilians.
“In the new influx, 2.38 million people have been registered,” said Ariane Rummery, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, citing figures given to the agency by the North West Frontier Province authorities. “That’s the new influx registered from May 2 from Swat, Lower Dir and Buner (districts),” she added.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters the government was doing all it could to care for the uprooted people, but said that one billion dollars would be needed to help them rebuild their lives. The United Nations has already launched an appeal for 543 million dollars to help the massive number of displaced. 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.
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. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas warned it could take up to 10 days to regain control of Swat’s capital Mingora, as the punishing assault across three rugged northwest districts entered a fifth week.
“Maulana Fazlullah has directed all his mujahedeen to stop resistance in Mingora and its surroundings to avoid hardships to the people and losses to the civilian population,” spokesman Muslim Khan told reporters. “Most of our mujahedeen have already left Mingora,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location, saying only he was speaking from a mountaintop.
Ground forces have been fighting street-by-street with Taleban fighters in Mingora. “It may take seven to 10 days to clear Mingora town of militants,” Abbas said. Troops first entered Mingora on Saturday.
“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.”
However, the military yesterday claimed to have secured Malam Jabba, a Taleban bastion in Swat once popular with tourists for its pristine ski slopes, and to have made gains in several key Mingora neighborhoods.
— With input from agencies
