MINGORA: The military lifted curfews Monday in seven towns in the Swat Valley in a further sign of confidence that its military offensive against the Taliban there is making progress, though violence flared elsewhere.
The order will allow thousands of people caught in the battle zone to leave their homes and search for food and other supplies that have dwindled, often to nothing, in the past month of fighting.
The loosening of restrictions posed new dangers for residents, however, with one saying he saw soldiers open fire at civilians in Mingora town as they emerged from hiding places, apparently because they suspected they were Taliban.
‘I saw two people who came out to ask for relief goods and they opened the fire on them from the mountains,’ said Gohar Ali, one of many Mingora residents who had been trapped for weeks in his home until a curfew was lifted briefly on Sunday. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said he was unaware of the incident.
The military said in a statement that daytime curfews were lifted Monday in the Swat towns of Bahrain, Madyan, Fatehpur, Khwazakhela, Matta and Alpurai and in the nearby district of Shangla.
Pakistan launched an offensive against militants in Swat and surrounding districts a month ago after they violated the terms of a cease-fire and advanced into a region close to Islamabad.
As a result of the Swat offensive troops have regained large swaths of the region from an estimated 4,000 militants. The fighting has forced up to three million people to evacuate, threatening a humanitarian crisis.
A day after the military declared it had retaken the town, Mingora on Sunday was battle-scarred and an Associated Press reporter who visited say two decomposing bodies lying unburied in a cemetery and a third, charred corpse near a shopping mall.
‘We have been starving for many days. We have been cooking tree leaves to keep ourselves alive. Thank God it is over,’ said resident Afzal Khan. ‘We need food. We need help. We want peace.’
Most of Mingora's at least 375,000 residents fled the offensive. The military briefly lifted a curfew Sunday, allowing some of the 20,000 or so who remained to buy provisions in the few shops that were open.
About 200 families returned to Mingora during Sunday's lull in the curfew, but refugees should not go home yet because the security situation was still unstable and the town has no power, said local lawmaker Haji Mohammad Adeel.
International Committee of the Red Cross officials who visited other parts of the valley Saturday were ‘alarmed’ at what they found.
‘There is no running water, no electricity, and food is scarce,’ team leader Daniel O'Malley said in a statement Sunday. ‘There is no fuel left for generators and most medical facilities in the district are no longer functioning. Phone lines are down, so people have been cut off from the outside world.’
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