IDP'S forced home to the Taliban

The Australian.com
THOUSANDS of refugees from Pakistan's troubled northwest are being sent back to Taliban-infested regions as the government rushes to close camps before the monsoon season.

Rations and services within refugee camps across the North West Frontier Province are being slowly turned off to force as many as two million refugees back to the homes they fled in May.

But The Australian has learned that mountain areas in district of Buner are again under the control of Taliban militants who, in one instance, have set up checkpoints just 500m from an army barricade.

"More than 100 Taliban are here right now," one terrified resident of the Buneri town of Malikpur said by phone through an interpreter at the weekend.

"They're checking ID cards and names," searching for members of the NWFP's ruling Awami National Party and anyone associated with a village army formed in late April to try to repel the militants, he said.

Last week three ANP workers were stopped at a Taliban checkpoint in the area, forced out of their cars and executed.

Buner was the first district cleared during the military operation launched in May to repel the Islamic extremists who had begun expanding their control across the NWFP and towards the capital Islamabad.

But as the army continues to repel Taliban from the Swat Valley, militants are being squeezed across mountain passes and back into Buner. Credible reports suggest they are now in control of a cluster of Buner hamlets.

The Malikpur resident said many people from neighbouring villages had fled in the past week. "There's so much fear. You can't speak to your neighbours. Even a husband cannot speak to his wife," he said.

Pakistan military spokesman Athar Abbas yesterday conceded militants had infiltrated some mountain regions in Buner but denied they had seized control of any towns.

"There are a few places where some actions have been reported from militants fleeing security forces, but that doesn't mean they're under Taliban control," he said. "There's no organised resistance, just hit-and-run operations into certain areas."

The Pakistan government earlier this month began repatriating residents to Buner and parts of Swat, assuring them it was safe to return.

It has promised all returning refugees ration cards and 25,000 rupees ($380), but no one The Australian spoke to had yet received theirs.

"We returned to our home in Swat but because I received no money we have come back here," one man at the Chota Lahore camp in Swabi said.

Across that miserable tent city, families told the same story of diminishing water, food and firewood rations.

"Before the government was providing money and rations but for the last 30 days we've been getting no money," Nazir Mohamed Khan said.

The man wanted desperately to return to his Buner mountain village of Diwana Baba with his wife - in poor health after miscarrying in the camp four weeks ago - but had been warned by his brother not to return.

"He called and said don't come back because the Taliban were again in control. I know it's a very dangerous area, but if the government gives permission we would go back because there is nothing in this camp - no food, no water."

In another section Faidah Mansha packed a meagre bundle of possessions in preparation for an early start on a military convoy back to Kalpani.

The village lies within a few kilometres of the Taliban-controlled Pir Baba and Malikpur. But his family is returning just the same.

"They announced that our village was cleared so we're going back," Faidah says. "The whole family is happy and pray to God we will never come back to this camp."

On a trip into Buner at the weekend The Australian found a region slowly coming back to life as military convoys repatriate hundreds of people after months in exile.

Barber shops - banned under the Taliban - were again doing roaring trade and children in school uniforms walked along the roadsides.

A passing truck full of Frontier Constabulary troops signalled the return of the district administration and its law enforcement agencies, chased out by militants just two months ago.

In the pretty agricultural town of Nawagai, police arrested four Taliban sympathisers on Friday.

In early May the Taliban drove into Nawagai in stolen NGO vehicles armed with rocket launchers and AK47s.

"Some thieves and robbers were also with the Taliban," said Israr Ullah, a school teacher and one of five brothers who he Australian visited two days after their happy reunion. There was no criteria for recruitment to the Taliban."

The army sent its air force in to shell a madrassa and other suspected militant hideouts on the outskirts of the village, killing the principal of the local high school and sending terrified villagers fleeing for their lives.

Israr Ullah stayed behind during the shelling to protect his family's cattle and holdings.

Despite the presence of Taliban just 35km up the road, all five brothers said they were relieved to be home.