UN official killing in Peshawar highlights fears of Swat displaced

August 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A United Nations official on Wednesday said that about 1.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their homes in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, including the Swat Valley. "The best estimate that we can make now is that approximately 1.3 million displaced people have returned home," Pakistan's UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Mogwanja told a press conference here.

August 15th, 2009 PESHAWAR - At least five security personnel were killed and four others including a civilian,were injured in a suicide car bomb attack at a checkpoint in Swat valley on Saturday. "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a military checkpost in Waliabad village, killing at least three soldiers," The Nation quoted a senior security official, as saying.

August 11th, 2009 PESHAWAR - A pre-dawn rocket attack in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has killed at least two persons and left three others injured, police said. BBC quoted a senior police official as saying that around a dozen rockets had landed in the city in the early morning hours, hitting the office of a paramilitary force.

August 10th, 2009 PESHAWAR - Around 115,458 displaced families from Swat, Malakand and other conflict-hit areas have returned home since the process of rehabilitation began on July 13. A majority of the families used private transport for their return, with the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) saying that only 30 percent of the displaced families opted for the transport arranged by the government, the Daily Times reports.

July 26th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A radical Islamic cleric who brokered a peace deal with the Taliban in Pakistan and went missing during a military offensive has resurfaced in Peshawar city, media reports said Sunday. Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad was seen Saturday for the first time since the military operation was launched April 26.

July 14th, 2009 ABU DHABI - The US has hailed the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) support to the people displaced in the ongoing conflict in Pakistan's restive Swat Valley, WAM news agency has reported. US Ambassador to the UAE Richard G.

July 12th, 2009 PESHAWAR - The North Western Frontier Government has charted out a three-phased rehabilitation plan for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of the Swat Valley. Under the first phase beginning Monday, the IDPs from 11 camps will return to the valley, the Dawn quoted NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, as saying.

June 29th, 2009 PESHAWAR - Pakistani people diaplaced due to ongoing offensive of the Army against the Taliban in the Swat Valley are selling relief goods to pay for their routine expenses. Each of the displaced families having, seven members, has been receiving 40kg wheat flour, 5kg sugar, 10kg rice, 5kg pulses, 5kg ghee, four soaps and 1kg dry milk per month from the government since May 13.

June 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities Wednesday temporarily shutdown Peshawar's international airport amid a rise in Taliban attacks in the northern city. "Peshawar airport has been closed for the time being due to technical reasons and the flights are being diverted to Islamabad airport," said Pervez George, a spokesman of country's Civil Aviation Authority in the southern city of Karachi.

June 4th, 2009 PESHAWAR - The Pakistan Army might be claiming success in its operation in the Swat Valley, but a large number of people, who have been forced to flee the region due to the military operation, have put a question mark over the offensive, saying no key Taliban leader has been nabbed or killed so far. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who have fled the valley and have taken refuge in government schools here, are skeptical about the authenticity of the military offensive, The Daily Times reports.

June 3rd, 2009 LAHORE - The Pakistan Government might be busy claiming that it is all set to clear Mingora of terrorism, but have the Taliban been decisively defeated, a Time magazine article questions. The report refers to a statement of military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, saying, "Once the army closed in on Mingora, the Taliban forces there "decided not to give a pitched battle" and mostly slipped away.

May 27th, 2009 PESHAWAR - The Pakistan Army has claimed that its offensive against the Taliban and other extremists in the Swat Valley is ahead of schedule as troops have forced the extremists back and have confined them to a very small area. "Operation Rah-e-Rast is ahead of schedule and is forcing the Taliban to give up mentally and psychologically," Peshawar Corps Commander Lieutenant General Masood Aslam said.

May 12th, 2009 MARDAN - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif has said the Taliban insurgent, who are responsible for the displacement of thousands from the war-torn Swat region, do not deserve any sympathy. Urging everyone to come forward and support internally displaced persons (IDPs), Sharif stated that a handful elements could not destabilize Swat.

May 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said 700 militants have been killed in the Swat Valley in the last four days, after the army intensified its operation against The Taliban in the troubled region. "The operation will continue until the last Talib.

May 9th, 2009 NEW YORK - The Pakistan Army has been claiming that it has sanitized scores of Taliban militants in the Swat Valley and other adjoining areas, but if hundreds of people who have been displaced by the 'war' are to be believed, the army is gunning down innocent and hapless civilians in its vow to clear the 'mess'. If statements of the hundreds of displaced people are any thing to go by, it appears that the army and the Taliban are treating each other like 'friends', and inspite of targeting each other, they are spraying bullets at the civilians.