Major Humanitarian Crisis in Pakistan

Refugee Crisis Clouds Pakistan's Anti-Taliban War
By Omar Waraich / Chotha Lahore, TIME, May. 12, 2009

It is in refugee camps like Chotha Lahore, rather than on the battlefields of the Swat Valley, that the outcome of Pakistan's decisive showdown with the Taliban may be decided. The camp, near the town of Swabi, is sheltering some of the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis displaced by the government offensive to drive the militants out of the Swat Valley and its surrounds. "The purpose [of the campaign] is to cleanse the areas of these miscreants and militants," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told TIME. "It will go on until it achieves its objective." But the Pakistani public's revulsion at the abuses of Taliban rule in the area could be eclipsed by anger at the catastrophic toll inflicted on the local civilian population by the military's campaign to oust the militants.

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Related:
360,000 civilians flee Pakistani offensive - AFP
UN to deliver urgent Pakistan aid - BBC
Samina Ahmed discusses refugee exodus in Pakistan - ABC
Picture Source: Getty Images (Printed in Wall Street Journal: May 11, 2009)