FLASHBACK 3."SWAT DISPLACED" /"AS IF HELL FELL UPON ME"

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 25, 2009 (AFP) - Pakistan's military
said Monday it could take up to 10 days to wrest back control of
Swat's Taliban-held capital, as the number of people feeling the
northwest offensive rose to 2.38 million.
Ground forces are fighting street-by-street with Taliban
fighters in Mingora, the business and administrative hub of the
scenic Swat region which has been ripped apart by a two-year
insurgency by the Islamist extremists.
Security forces launched their assault across three districts in
late April, as Taliban fighters bent on expanding their control and
introducing a harsh brand of Islamic law advanced to within 100
kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad.
"It may take seven to 10 days to clear Mingora town of
militants," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.
"The operation may be a little slow to avoid civilian
casualties, damage and destruction to property. There are also
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in Mingora, and we have
to clear these IEDs as well."
The onslaught across the northwest has sent panicked civilians
fleeing their homes, and the UN refugee agency and government
officials said Monday that authorities had registered about 2.38
million displaced people since May 2.
Security forces have said a number of key squares and
intersections in Mingora are now under their control, as the
offensive enters a crucial phase.
A military official who did not want to be named said that six
militants died overnight in Kabal town about 20 kilometres (12
miles) west of Mingora.
"They were trying to plant a bomb outside a mosque but it
exploded on them," the official told AFP. "The dead bodies of six
armed militants are still lying near the mosque."
He said Pakistan's security forces were still battling on the
streets of Mingora, which has seen Taliban fighters armed with guns
and rocket launchers patrol the streets in the past weeks, according
to residents who fled.
"Militants are retreating from different fronts but we are still
receiving fire from some pockets of resistance," the official said.
Helicopter gunships also shelled militant hideouts in Peochar
and Malam Jabba -- mountainous areas northwest of Mingora which are
Taliban bastions.
Reporters and humanitarian workers have mostly been barred from
visiting the conflict zone and telephone land lines and mobile
signals appear to have been cut in Mingora, making the military's
claims impossible to verify.
Pakistan says more than 1,100 militants and 66 soldiers have
died in the offensive launched in the districts of Lower Dir on
April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8, but those tolls
cannot be confirmed independently.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters that the
government was doing all it could to care for the massive number of
uprooted people.
"Around 2.3 million people have been registered as displaced
persons so far but this figure is not final," he said, adding that
nearly 200,000 are living in camps while the rest are huddled with
relatives in cramped homes.
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.
Fears are also growing for between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians
that the military say are still trapped with scant food and medical
supplies in Mingora, which usually has a population of 300,000.
Security forces say 15,000 troops are now fighting 1,500 to
2,000 "hardcore militants" in Swat.
The extremists' advance came despite a February deal with a
pro-Taliban cleric which put three million people in the northwest
under sharia law in a bid to end the two-year Taliban insurgency --
a deal which now lies in tatter
FLASHBACK 3."SWAT DISPLACED" /"AS IF HELL FELL UPON ME"