DTN News: Pakistan Military Offensive Against Taliban In Swat Valley Created Nearly 2.4 Million Displaced People

DTN News: Pakistan Military Offensive Against Taliban In Swat Valley Created Nearly 2.4 Million Displaced People (NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD - May 25 2009: Nearly 2.4 million people have registered with provincial authorities after fleeing an anti-Taliban military offensive this month in northwest Pakistan, the UN and government officials said Monday. Internally displaced people, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley region,stand at distribution center at UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Jalozai camp about 140 km (87 miles) north west of Pakistan's capital Islamabad May 25, 2009. Pakistani soldiers were moving from house to house on Monday as they battled militants in the main town in the Swat valley and were expected to take at least a week to secure it, the military said. Ariane Rummery, spokeswoman for the UNHCR, said they had been given the figure by the North West Frontier Province authorities and expected the number to fluctuate after cross checks are carried out in the coming days. ‘In the new influx, 2.38 million people have been registered,’ she said. ‘That’s the new influx registered from May two from Swat, Lower Dir and Buner.’ Pakistan’s security forces launched their onslaught against Taliban fighters in the districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8, sending terrified civilians fleeing their homes. Most of the displaced are staying with friends and relatives, while others are crammed into government-run camps. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters the government was doing all it could to care for the massive number of uprooted people. This photo taken from video released by the Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations Department on Monday, May 25, 2009 shows Pakistani soldiers escorting an injured resident in Khawazakhela, a town of Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley. The Taliban urged civilians Monday to return to the main town in Pakistan's Swat Valley, promising they won't attack security forces battling insurgents there but stopping short of calling the move a cease-fire. ‘Around 2.3 million people have been displaced but this number is not final,’ he said. The newly-displaced join more than 550,000 people who fled similar battles last year and rights groups have warned that it is Pakistan’s biggest movement of people since partition from India in 1947.