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Residents flee Pakistan's Swat as truce collapses
Tue May 5, 2009 9:37am EDT
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By Junaid Khan
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of people fled from the main town in Pakistan's Swat valley on Tuesday after a government official urged residents in some neighborhoods to seek safety as fresh fighting with Taliban militants could erupt.
A February peace pact aimed at ending Taliban violence in the Swat valley northwest of the capital has all but collapsed as the government comes under U.S. pressure to get tough with the militants rather than appease them.
President Asif Ali Zardari, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's widower, is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on Wednesday for talks on the growing militant threat in the region.
The top government official in Swat, Khushal Khan Khattak, said militants had infiltrated five districts of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and begun attacking security forces and government installations.
He said security forces could soon attack the militants and
urged people to get out of harm's way. But he later said the fear of fighting had passed and people could stay home, while the army said it was in control of the town.
That did not reassure the people cramming into and on top of buses to get out of Mingora, 130 km (80 miles) from Islamabad.
"I'm taking my family to Peshawar because if there's any fighting, no one can protect us," said Mohammad Karim, as he searched for a bus heading out of the valley to Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.
Some residents estimated thousands were fleeing.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from fighting in different parts of the northwest since last August, putting another burden on an economy being propped up by a $7.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.
Increasing violence and the Taliban's spread have raised alarm in the United States about the ability of the nuclear-armed country, whose help is vital in efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, to stand up to the militants.
Residents of Mingora said earlier militants had surrounded a paramilitary force base at a power station in the town and others had taken up positions on buildings and were patrolling streets.
"CIVILIAN SHIELD"
The military said in a statement security forces had beaten back an attack on the camp but a senior military official in the region said an operation might be launched to rescue 46 paramilitary soldiers besieged there.
"We're acting with restraint because they're using civilians as a shield but we'll go after them if the situation gets worse," said the military official, who declined to be identified. Continued...
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