Islamabad, April 27 (Inditop) A human tragedy is unfolding in Lower Dir in Pakistan’s restive northwest as thousands of people have begun fleeing in the wake of an operation launched by the security forces against the Taliban that continued for the second day Monday.
Dawn quoted local people as saying that most of those fleeing were women and children.
“I am leaving everything here and taking my family,” said Karimullah, a farmer in the Samarbagh area of Lower Dir district.
�We can’t take a risk with troops fighting the Taliban,” he added.
Fazal Rabbi of Hayaserai village told Dawn that hundreds of families left the area after Sufi Mohammad said that people should leave Maidan immediately.
Shah Wazir of Galgot said two houses in his village had been hit by shells fired by helicopters.
He said he would take nine women and 14 children of his family to a relative’s house at Harichand in Mardan.
Hundreds of families from Hayaserai, Kad, Lajbok, Darmal, Shako, Shakar Tangay and Kaladag walked several miles to the Dir-Peshawar road to move to safe areas.
Journalists were barred from the area and security personnel snatched the camera of a TV reporter, Syed Amjad Ali Shah, in Balambat and detained him in the Dir Scouts’ fort for some time.
Taliban also kidnapped Major Rahim Khan of the Levies forces in Upper Dir and sepoy Mohammad Khan, along with their official vehicle.
Lower Dir lies about 170 km northwest of Islamabad, to the west of Swat. The two districts form a part of the Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the imposition of Sharia laws as part of a controversial peace deal with the Taliban that would have the militants laying down their arms.
Instead, the Taliban had last week moved south from their Swat headquarters to occupy Buner district, just 100 km from Islamabad. They later withdrew after being persuaded to do so by radical cleric Sufi Mohammad, who had brokered the peace deal.
Lower Dir is Sufi Mohammad’s home district.
The Taliban had Sunday suspended the Swat peace accord after the security operation began and Monday, it demanded the action stop.
