Pakistan operation forces 20,000 people to flee (Roundup)

Sep 29, 2008, 14:35 GMT

Islamabad - About 20,000 people have fled to the north- eastern Afghan province of Kunar to avoid fighting along the border between Taliban militants and security forces in a Pakistani tribal district, the UN refugee agency said Monday.

The statement came as 23 more people, including 14 insurgents and nine locals, died in the conflicts.

The fighting in the restive district of Bajaur started in August when thousands of Pakistani military troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, launched an operation to retake control of a strategically important checkpoint along a route used by the Taliban to aid their comrades fighting US forces in Kunar.

The clashes, which are still continuing, have killed more than 600 militants and dozens of soldiers and inflicted heavy civilian casualties.

'A total of 3,964 families have sought refuge in the districts of Shigal (2,120 families), Marawara (748), Dangam (706) and some 390 families in other districts of Kunar province,' said a statement released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR statement said more than 600 Pakistani families had fled into Afghanistan in the past two weeks alone.

'While the vast majority of them are living with their relatives and friends, there are already some 200 families who live in the open air,' it said.

The agency said it anticipated that the majority of the displaced families would return to Pakistan as soon as the security situation in Bajaur improves.

Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman refused to comment on the report while Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq was not available for comment.

The fighting has also internally displaced more than 300,000 people who have moved to safer placer in North-West Frontier Province.

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees after the Soviet invasion of the country in the late 1970s and the invasion of US-led international forces in 2001, but this was the first time Pakistanis have fled to Afghanistan in so many numbers.

There was little hope that the clashes would end soon. At least 12 people were killed Monday when Taliban militants and local tribesmen exchanged heavy gunfire.

The fighting started when an army of volunteers from the Salarzai tribe tried to set ablaze the houses of the insurgents.

'At least nine locals and three Taliban - including their commander in the area, Abdul Mutallab - died in the firefight while six more people were injured,' a security official said on the condition of anonymity.

In some areas of Bajaur, locals have been defying the Taliban and its hard-line shariah law.

Members of three tribes - the Salarzai, Tarkhani and Utmankhel - have announced they intend to defend their respective areas against the fundamentalist Islamic group that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

Separately, eleven Taliban rebels were killed when helicopter gunships pounded their positions in Mamoond, Damadola and Banda areas, said the official.

Bajaur district is a known sanctuary of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants launching crossborder attacks on international forces in Afghanistan.

Some military experts said a success by Pakistani forces against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in Bajaur would be a major breakthrough in the fight against rising Islamic militancy in the country.