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Pakistanis Flee Fighting

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The Associated Press

Published: October 24, 2008

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The Taliban beheaded their relatives and terrorized their villages. Now army airstrikes are killing the innocent, say refugees who fled fighting set off by a Pakistani military offensive against the Islamic extremists.

The army maintains it is winning the war in the Bajur tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, one of its most intense operations against al-Qaida and its Taliban allies since 2001. A spokesman even predicts military victory in a month.

Dozens of refugees interviewed by The Associated Press this week in tent camps on both sides of the border gave a rare glimpse of the human costs of the fighting in Bajur, a highly dangerous region where foreigners are largely restricted from visiting and Pakistani journalists have limited movement.

"I feel like a walking dead body," Parmeen Bibi said as she carried her wailing 3-year-old granddaughter in a camp in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's troubled northwest.

"I don't want to go back to that land where my innocent brothers were slaughtered," she said, referring to four brothers she says were beheaded by the Taliban for supporting the government.

Nearly 200,000 people have fled the fighting in Bajur; many have sought refuge in the camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For the most part, the refugees said they witnessed only airstrikes and heard artillery fire in the distance. None saw any combat involving troops on the ground in Bajur. The army says the fight has relied heavily on bombs and rockets fired from planes and helicopters. The army also has some 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers and paramilitary troops on the ground.

Pakistan says it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties in Bajur, which is believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

The United States has praised the Bajur offensive and urges Pakistan to confront militants blamed for rising attacks on U.S. and NATO forces across the frontier in Afghanistan.

The region borders Afghanistan, settled areas of Pakistan and other tribal areas, making it a key hub for militants. Before the offensive began in early August, officials said insurgents had set up a virtual mini-state there, enforcing their hard-line version of Islamic law and meting out brutal justice for violators and alleged spies.

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