Pakistan Steps up Offensive against Taliban, Refugees Struggle

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by battles between Pakistani forces and Taliban militants. Thousands more are fleeing as Pakistani forces step up operations against the militants.

Amanullah Khan's hair is singed from a close encounter with shellfire, but he considers himself lucky because he managed to escape from Swat with his entire family of six.

[Amanullah Khan, Laborer]:
"There was extremely heavy bombardment in Swat. My village and the entire area around it were destroyed. In front of my eyes 45 to 50 people were killed by the bombing. They died. They were blown to pieces.

Khan was sitting with his wife and daughters in a camp for internally displaced people on Friday the 8th, as Pakistani aircraft bombed Taliban positions in the militants' Swat valley bastion. That comes a day after the prime minister ordered the military to eliminate the militants.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani says that militants are trying to hold the country hostage at gunpoint. In response, the government began a major offensive against Taliban fighters in Swat, where a peace pact has collapsed.

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari is in Washington for talks in this week. He assured U.S. president Barack Obama of Islamabad's commitment to defeat al Qaeda and its allies.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting this week, while hundreds of thousands were already displaced by earlier battles.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expressed his deep concern about the safety of people displaced by the fighting. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the humanitarian crisis is intensifying.

Category:

News & Politics

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• Pakistan
• Offensive
• Taliban
• militants
• Swat
• Washington
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• Red
• Cross
• humanitarian

[madcatzy]

Go pakistan army!!!! crush the fucking taliban

[hussi434]

i hope the taliban are crushed, no country deserves terrorist rule

[creten69]

more fake shit they just keep making bad guys up to kill and bomb people are nice and all the armiy people need to go home and die

[PandemicMadness]

a good talib is a dead one. He is a total waste to humanity - his brain has been converted into islamic dogshit.

[sezas]

bury them in their holes, that is where they will stay cold for eternity.

[sezas]

shame on taliban sympathisers.

[waqar4]

Screw Talibans

[MbondoCalongo]

all of Middle East war are Forged by american

[Mameluke13]

Shame on the pakistani army.