By IRNA,
Islamabad : Thousands of people Sunday fled the insurgency-hit Swat Valley in Pakistan as the security forces, engaged with Taliban militants, relaxed curfew for the first time in a week.
The population of almost five hundred thousands of Mingora, the main city in Swat, had been stranded for a week when the armed Taliban took its control.
Power supply had been cut to the city for a week, causing suspension of water supply and shortage of food as the long curfew had stopped all kind of supplies.
The government late night announced relaxation in curfew till Sunday evening asking the people to leave.
Several residents of Mingora told IRNA on phone that thousands of people including children, women and aged left the city on foot and any vehicle they found.
“There is no transport as the authorities have stopped vehicles to enter the city,” a resident Shahabuddin said.
“There is a sea of people fleeing Mingora and adjoining areas,” another resident Iqbal Hussain said on phone from Mingora.
Hussain said his family also fled the city for Mardan, a city 120 kilometers from Mingora, where they will stay with relatives.
He said army helicopters fired shells at a building in Mingora, where Taliban militants were believed to be hiding. He said children and women were suffering from physiological problem to hear shelling while besieged for a week inside homes.
A provincial Minister in Pakistan’s northwest says that he expect five hundreds thousands people will be displaced from Swat. He said camps have been set up in Mardan, Swabi and Nowshehra, three man cities in the region.
The UN refugee agency says there is a situation of “massive displacement” in north-west Pakistan, as the confrontation between government forces and militants becomes more widespread and people take advantage of the partial lifting of curfews to move into safer areas.
UNHCR is currently responding to the emergency with relief supplies (tents, plastic sheets, buckets, jerry cans, and kitchen sets) for 100,000 people, while procuring additional supplies for an additional 200,000.