Pakistan: Families flee from the ethnic Pashtun region fearing violence

Miranshah: Expecting an escalation of violence, two-thirds of families have fled from the ethnic Pashtun region, residents said, many heading for the Gorbaz district of Afghanistan’s Khost province.

Mohammad Akbar Zadran, Gorbaz district chief, said nearly a thousand families, or around 10,000 people, have now entered into Gorbaz district, and the number was growing.

“We have packed up everything and are ready to leave as soon as the curfew is lifted,” said Ethasham Khan, a resident of Miranshah, where the usually bustling streets were empty.

The curfew will be relaxed in the next couple of days to allow residents to leave the area, a security official said.

Tellingly, the Pakistani military’s operation against the Islamist militants in North Waziristan is called Zarb-e-Azb in Urdu, or ‘Strike of the Sword’.

For now, ground troops — numbering some 80,000 in North Waziristan, according to military sources — have not been involved in direct military action, leaving F-16 combat jets to lead the offensive with air strikes.

It was also unclear how long officials expect the operation to last in a region of forbidding mountainous terrain that has/snever been subdued by any government.

Separately on Monday, Omar Jillani, an intelligence official who police said is the nephew of Pakistan’s powerful chief justice, was kidnapped in the eastern city of Multan by suspected Taliban gunmen, police said.

Security is visibly tighter in the capital, Islamabad, as well, with street patrols by paramilitary Rangers and police. In Lahore, the cultural capital, police have added checkpoints.

Islamabad’s central Kohsar market, a shopping and dining spot for foreigners and rich Pakistanis, was largely deserted as the operation got underway on Sunday afternoon.