60 Pakistani Christian families from war-torn areas take shelter near Peshawar
By Dan Wooding and Sheraz Khurram Khan, Special to ASSIST News Service, May 14, 2009
Shangla and Lower Dir after the Pakistan army launched their offensive.
People fleeing the fighting in the Swat valley
PAKISTAN (ANS) -- In the wake of the ongoing Pakistani military operation against Taliban militants in the North West of the country, at least sixty Christian families have managed to take refuge in Rasalpur, near Peshawar, the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan (NWFP) on May 9, Minorities Concern of Pakistan (MCOP) has reported.
Christians and Sikhs are among tens of thousands of people who have fled from the four war-plagued districts of NWFP including Swat, formerly a tourist paradise, as well as in Buner,
The Taliban began enforcing Sharia (Islamic) Law in Swat after striking a deal with the Pakistan government in February of this year.
The arrangement proved short-lived, however, when the Taliban occupied Buner, a nearby district of Swat in April 2009, prompting the Pakistan military to launch an offensive against the Taliban to curb their advance towards the capital city of Islamabad, which is only 60 miles from Buner.
Emboldened by taking control of Swat, the Taliban reportedly started demanding 'minority tax' from local Sikhs. The move has alarmed Pakistani Christians who feared that their fate would be no different from Sikhs if the Taliban's influence continued to expand.
The Taliban is waging an insurgency to impose Sharia law in the areas they hold, and want to expand to power other parts of Pakistan.
Under Taliban's rigid version of Islam women are not allowed to go out on their own unless they are accompanied by their husbands or fathers.
The MCOP report says that around 2,000 fleeing Sikhs, including women and children, have already arrived at Gurdwara Punja Sahib, the Sikhs' holiest place in Hasan Abdal in Pakistan's Punjab province.
The government's Evacuation Board is spending every day about Rs. 25,000 (US$312) for their individual food and shelter, says the MCOP report.
The report went on to say that the Taliban had asked people to leave the area after the military launched offensive against them, but the absence of any proper transportation stopped the prompt evacuation of the people.
"As a result, many walked for days to reach NWFP districts of Mardan and Swabi where the government has set up refugee camps," said the report. "Thousands are still waiting to be registered as refugees to get food and shelter."
It said that appr oximately 300,000 people have left their homes from which 120,000 are registered and living in the refugee camps while more than 200,000 have been staying with their friends and relatives.
It is feared about one million people could be displaced within days.
The newly displaced people are in addition to 555,000 previously displaced Pakistani's who fled from other parts of the tribal areas of NWFP since August 2008, the report said.
