SHAGUNA NAKA, Pakistan: Pakistan’s military suspended a curfew yesterday in a northwest city where it is fighting Taleban guerrillas, officials said, allowing tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area.
In what is emerging as a grave humanitarian crisis, 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 to crush the militants.
The suspension came as the military said troops had killed 55 militants in the valley and had arrested a top Taleban commander, Dawa Noor, during the last 24 hours. The government suspended a curfew for people going out of Swat’s main city of Mingora from dawn until midafternoon, and local administration chief Arshad Khan said residents had been advised to leave — and were doing so.
Taleban fighters are shaving off their beards and trying to flee from the offensive in their Swat bastion, the military said yesterday. “We have confirmed reports that these Taleban terrorists, after shaving off their beards and cutting their hair, are fleeing from the area,” the military said in a statement.
The UN said yesterday nearly one million people had fled the fighting over the past two weeks. Hundreds of vehicles including buses, cars, rickshaws, pickups and motorbikes were seen crossing the Shaguna Naka checkpoint at the exit of the conflict zone.
People sat on the roofs of buses and backs of trucks with their bedding and clothes as they headed for Mardan 30 kilometers away where authorities have set up camps for the displaced people.
The military says its forces have encircled Mingora. The advance of the militants closer to the capital Islamabad has raised concern in the United States, which has put Pakistan at the center of its efforts to contain another Islamist insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan. The United Nations said yesterday over 907,000 displaced people have been registered since May 2, adding to another 555,000 civilians who fled escalating violence last year. The Geneva-based spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, said the “figure was going up by the hour.”
Spokesman William Spindler said there was “massive displacement” in the area and the UN would likely need “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the relief efforts. Pakistan’s Army appealed to locals to help identify militants fleeing the areas disguised as refugees.
