PESHAWAR / BANNU:As the air blitz continues against the hideouts of militants in North Waziristan Agency, the number of tribesmen fleeing an impending ground offensive has soared past 200,000, officials said, though independent sources put the numbers at 300,000.
Over 160,000 people have left this week after the military launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb. The political administration eased the curfew on Wednesday to give civilians a chance to leave before troops begin a full-blooded ground operation.
The fighting has triggered a huge exodus of civilians, both into Bannu, Peshawar and Kohat and across the border into Afghanistan. “Some 165,807 people have arrived in Bannu since June 18,” Arshad Khan, the director general of the Fata Disaster Management Authority, toldThe Express Tribune on Friday. “The total number of displaced people is 22,7049. Of them 56,214 are male, 70,465 female and 100,370 children,” he added.
The military said an organized evacuation of IDPs continues towards FR Bannu. “Until now 200,000 persons have been evacuated from the area. So far 11 families, comprising 92 individuals, have been enlisted in the camp at Bakkakhel area of Bannu,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
It added that 400 Afghan families left North Waziristan for Afghanistan through Ghulam Khan border village on Friday. They were provided all required administrative assistance.
In Afghanistan, Khost administration spokesman Mubarez Muhammad Zadran told AFP that 1,400 refugee families had registered and estimated that as many as 10,000 families – or 70,000 to 80,000 people – could be scattered across the border province.
Thousands of people including women and children were seen travelling to Bannu by foot on Friday. Women were sitting by the roadside as vehicles and passenger vans kept moving at a snail’s pace in long queues – the 60-kilometre journey from Miramshah to Bannu taking 16 hours by car, an AFP reporter said.
In Miramshah and Mir Ali, more than 80% of the population have either left or were planning to leave in next 12 hours. A government official in Miramshah estimated that up to 40% of the whole population could stay behind.
In Razmak, almost half of the population has decided to stay as they believe they will be safe as there was no militant activity in their area.
The prime minister’s point-man for IDPs, meanwhile, said that although the deadline for evacuation has expired military operation would not be resumed in those areas where civilians were still trapped.
While speaking at a news conference at Peshawar’s Governor House, Abdul Qadir Baloch, who is also a federal minister, refused to give a timeframe for purging North Waziristan of all militants. “The whole nation is on board on the Waziristan operation which will continue till all militants are eliminated,” he added.
