Refugees from northwest can settle anywhere in Pakistan: PM

July 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A leader of Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP) has said the Taliban is a 'brainchild' of the military and the latter cannot be expected to crush the banned outfit completely. "It's an insane dream to expect anything different from the Pakistani government.

July 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special envoy Richard Holbrooke is headed for Pakistan and Afghanistan on a trip that focuses on the plight of internal refugees and security issues and will also take him to India. "Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke is travelling to Pakistan July 21 through 23 and then subsequently to Afghanistan," White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

July 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Fourteen militants, including three rebel commanders, were killed in fighting with the security forces in northwest Pakistan, officials said Monday. In the past 24 hours to Monday evening, the security forces killed 14 terrorists, including three rebel commanders, in a search operation in the Swat and Malakand districts in northwest Pakistan, the Pakistan Army said in a statement.

July 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A UN official was shot dead Thursday in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, TV reports said. Ibn-e-Usman, an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was shot dead when he tried to resist an abduction bid by gunmen outside his office in the Katcha Garhi area of the city in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the Express TV reported.

July 14th, 2009 23 militants dead in clashes in NW PakistanKHAR, Pakistan — Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan's northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said Tuesday. Elsewhere in the volatile northwest, suspected militants attacked an oil tanker carrying fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, killing two people, an official said.

July 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Pakistan Government's record in handling the return of refugees is not good, and Islamabad is unprepared for the influx of people in the Swat Valley which can result in a loss of public opinion if the delivery of services is no better than before the Taliban's seizure of the region, analysts have said. Pakistan on Monday began returning more than two million refugees who were displaced by a government offensive against Taliban elements to the Swat Valley.

July 14th, 2009 23 militants killed in clashes in PakistanKHAR, Pakistan — Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan's northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said Tuesday. Elsewhere in the volatile northwest, suspected militants attacked an oil tanker carrying fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, killing two people, an official said.

July 10th, 2009 Airstrikes in northwest Pakistan kill 24 militantsISLAMABAD — Pakistani fighter jets killed 24 insurgents close to the Afghan border while security forces arrested 40 militants in raids in another northwestern region, officials said Friday. Under heavy U.S.

June 18th, 2009 Jolie, Pitt give UN agency $1 millionGENEVA — Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have donated $1 million to the U.N. refugee agency providing aid to hundreds of thousands uprooted by violence in Pakistan.

June 12th, 2009 PESHAWAR - Pakistan needs a staggering $2.2 billion to rehabilitate the three million refugees who have been uprooted by the military's anti-Taliban operations in the country's restive northwest, Online news agency Friday quoted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as saying. Talking to reporters during a visit to the Jalozai refugee camp near this North West Frontier Province (NWFP) capital, he said the US had given $300 million while Turkey had contributed $110 million.

June 9th, 2009 NEW YORK - The UN has received just $136 million, or just under one-fourth, of the $543 million it has appealed for to aid the three million civilians who have been displaced by the Pakistani military's anti-Taliban operations in the country's restive northwest. Another $15 million has been pledged, APP news agency Tuesday quoted UN officials as saying.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The lack of valid data on the number of people displaced by the military's anti-Taliban operations in the country's troubled northwest has confirmed fears that many militants could have fled the area by intermingling with the refugees. At least three sets of figures exist.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday said the United States is seeking an extra 200 million dollar in emergency aid to help Pakistanis displaced by a military offensive in the northwest against the Taliban. "Today, the president has asked me to inform you and your government that he has requested the Congress of the United States to allocate an additional 200 million dollars," The News quoted Holbrooke, as saying.

May 8th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - As many as 600,000 to 800,000 Pakistani refugees are streaming from the mountains and valleys of the greater Swat region, leaving the Pakistan Government with the gigantic task of rehabilitating them, the Central Science Monitor reports. Pakistan Government has a make or break chance to win the public acceptance.

May 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has denounced militancy, saying that it has forced hundreds of thousands of people to migrate to safer places from tribal areas of the country. In his message on the occasion of World Red Crescent Day, Zardari said it is the responsibility of the government to provide relief to affected people and to ensure their respectable return home.