2 m displaced refugees start returning to Swat
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A displaced Pakistani family load their belongings as they get ready to return to their villages from Jalozai Internal Displaced Camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, yesterday. AP |
CHARSADDA, Pakistan: Hundreds of Pakistani refugees who spent weeks in sweltering relief camps began heading home to the battle-scarred northwest Swat Valley yesterday under a government repatriation program, traveling on buses with security escorts.
But some refused to go back, citing security concerns and demanding promised aid, while the military tried to block thousands more returning without permission.
In central Pakistan, meanwhile, an explosion destroyed a house used as a religious seminary, killing at least nine people - seven of them children - and leaving many others in critical condition in a reminder that security has deteriorated in areas well beyond the country's northwest region by Afghanistan. Police said they had evidence the home had been used as a meeting place for militants. The cause of the blast was unknown.
The government had designated yesterday as the first day some of the more than 2 million people displaced during an army campaign to rid the northwestern Swat Valley of militants could return home.
The army has declared most of Swat clear of Taliban insurgents after an operation strongly backed by US officials eager to see Pakistan eliminate safe havens for militants.
Yesterday's sputtering start to the repatriation program, however, showed the government's limited capacity to respond to one of its greatest-ever humanitarian challenges.
Last year, officials told refugees from the Bajur tribal region they could return during a ceasefire with Taliban fighters, and many did, only to see fighting resume.
Several families at some refugee camps yesterday said they would not go home unless they were given money, food and other government-promised aid. Each family was supposed to get 25,000 rupees ($306), but the government has had difficulties in giving out the cash.
Others also cited security worries. The army says more than 1,700 militants were killed in the fighting, but none of their leaders were among the casualties.
AP
(China Daily 07/14/2009 page12)
