Pakistan: Migration continues from Miranshah

Residents of a Taliban-infested region in northwest where the military launched a major offensive continue to flee on Thursday, officials said. So far the offensive has largely relied on airstrikes but the easing of the curfew to allow residents to leave could indicate a more intense ground offensive is in the making. Roughly 63,000 people left the North Waziristan tribal region in the weeks before the offensive began on Sunday, fleeing previous airstrikes and because of fears of a larger offensive. Authorities expect another 130,000 people to be displaced in the coming days. A steady stream of trucks, vans and vehicles loaded down with household possessions, including beds, fans and televisions, started to roll down the road connecting the capital of North Waziristan, Miran Shah, with Bannu in the nearby Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.